A Minute with Chris
Senior Pastor
Thursday 6 March, 2025
A final word on Sabbath
It has been such an encouragement across all congregations to see the impact that our Sabbath series is having. There have been plenty of conversations about our patterns of rest amongst our people. There have been numbers of new Practice Groups springing up, and the discussions have been rich and varied.
I thought it might be good to briefly reiterate some of the main points that have been made over the past few weeks:
Although Sabbath is one of the Commandments, in Christ it is more of an invitation than a set of rules to obey. Indeed, Jesus seems to largely refute the rules the 'religious police' put around it. As Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus position seems to be that Sabbath was made for us, not us for the Sabbath. In other words, it is a gift to be accepted rather than a merit to be earned.
Sabbath is a call to do less not more. With careful planning and some experimenting, over time, Sabbath can be a beautiful weekly experience of stopping, resting, delighting and worshiping.
Taking Sabbath is not about achieving a higher level of spirituality, but about giving Jesus more space to form us.
Although Sabbath may take us out of our comfort zone, it should be a place of delight. If you are not enjoying it over time, you probably need to make some tweaks.
At the end of a Sabbath day it is good to ask these questions:
Do I feel more rested?
Do I feel closer to family and/or friends?
Do I feel closer to God?
If you feel resistant to Sabbath, keep asking what is creating that within me? It could be an unhealthy experience of it as a child (a long list of "thou shalt nots"). It could be a fear of becoming legalistic (which is one that I find myself grappling with).
Eugene Petersons translation of Psalm 46:10 is a beautifully worded invitation to the idea of Sabbath…
“Step out of the traffic!
Take a long, loving look at me, your High God,
above politics, above everything.”
I am looking forward to seeing what our exploration and practice of Sabbath will enable God to do in us and among us as in the days ahead, we seek to make more room for Jesus in our lives.
Blessings,
Chris Danes
Feature News
Church at Prayer
Wednesday 26th March from 7.30-8.30pmCome along to our Church at Prayer event and join others from across our church as we pray together.
In the weeks preceding the night, we'll be inviting SBC people to submit prayer requests. Then on the night, we'll be praying specifically for God to move powerfully in those places, lives and situations. There will also be the opportunity for people to request prayer spontaneously on the night, and our Prayer Ministry Team will be available as well.
At Church at Prayer, we also always take the opportunity to start and end our time of prayer with worship, to focus our hearts and minds on the one we are speaking with.
Come along and be part of asking God to bring breakthrough in the lives of others, and/or recieve prayer yourself.
Submit a prayer request now
Easter at Syndal
We're looking forward to celebrating Easter together as a church again this April with services on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. It's a great opportunity to reflect on Jesus and the significance of his death and resurrection, and an amazing opportunity to invite people along to hear about Jesus for the first time.
Click the button below to read the details about our Easter events.
Easter is also a great opportunity to serve others and extend the love of Jesus to people visiting our events.
We need a big team of people to make these events as welcoming and encouraging as possible.
To sign up to serve, click below.
Visit Easter Page
Sign Up to Serve
Great things to celebrate
Man Alive Breakfast
Last Saturday morning, over 45 men attended our first Man Alive breakfast for 2025, with men from all adult age demographics.
It was encouraging to see that numbers of SBC men brought mates along to the event - some having not stepped foot in a church before.
It was not only a great breakfast but a terrific time of catching up and making new friends.
The guest speaker was Phil Shepherd, who shared his story of paddling with 4 other guys from Victoria to Tasmania - and what a story it was! Inspiring, dangerous, thrilling as well as holding significant life moments emotionally along the way. At the end of the talk Phil left the guys to ponder this thought: If your view of God is small your problems will be big. If your view of God is big your problems will be small.
Our upcoming 2025 Man Alive event details can be found at our website or collect a flyer from the connect desk.
Visit Man Alive page
Clean Up Australia Day
20 bags of rubbish! 40 Volunteers! A cleaner Syndal for God, us and our community!
A massive thank you to all who participated last Sunday to to make it the Biggest Clean Up Ever. To Peter, Jan, Gaofery, Stephen, Lilian, Adrian, Mitchell, Rebekah, Viviana, Kanta, Way, Peta, Melinda, Bill, Nicola, Hayley, Vivienne, Tony, John, Paul, Uchi, Bill, Julia, Ian, Elaine, Zhipeng, Junying, Keith, Hong, Austin, Hannah, Havalah, Jason, Evelyn, James, Francis, Lincoln, Viraj, Suneth and anyone else - thank you.
Thank you for scouring the streets, the nature strips, the car parks and footpaths and finding litter of all shapes and sizes, from cigarette butts to laundry baskets, from batteries to pieces of carpet. Well done for sharing your time and energy to support this important event.
We are truly blessed to be able to worship within the Syndal community and it is an honour to be able to bless the community in return.
"God looked over everything He had made; it was so good, so very good!"Genesis 1:31 (MSG)
Fuel Chinese New Year Dinner
On Friday 21st Feb, Fuel had our 'Year of the Snake' event to celebrate Chinese New Year (with the new year being 'the year of the snake).
On the night we spent some time eating dinner followed by a Bible study where we talked about Sabbath in our small groups.
We had 99 youth attend which is one of the largest nights we've had in a number of years.
It was also great to have several youth invite friends to come along for the first time.
Special thanks to Desi and Ruth who cooked a dinner for everyone and some volunteers who came along to serve food and clean dishes.
Matrix Lunch Launch
Community Care had it's first Matrix lunch this year, held in February. There were 40 who attended, some of whom traveled many kms (even on public transport) to attend.
There was a real sense of joy and community with a lot of laughter and chatter. During our time together, we celebrated some birthdays and welcomed some new people too. There were a couple of people from the new housing development across the road who attended, which was very encouraging.
Desi's meals are a real winner - especially the chicken kiev and the sticky date pudding. A few prayer requests were submitted into our prayer box, meaning we're able to pray for individual needs, and they alert us to how we can help as well. It's amazing what people share and is a great opportunity for us to really show that we care each individual person.
Some stayed even after the meal was finished to chat a bit longer. For some this is their highlight of the week and the Matrix community has become like one big family. It is such a great way to bless and care for our local community.
SYG Barbeque Fundraiser - Thank You!
Dear Church Family,
Thank you for your Generosity! Fuel Youth and Central Young Adults held a State Youth Game fundraiser yesterday. We are still awaiting the final numbers, but we raised over $600! The whole volunteer team was blown away by the generosity of everyone who bought a sausage, and a special thank you to those who simply gave to support our youth and young adults in attending SYG.
Member in Service Spotlight
Jonathon Kilchester
International Sending Director, Power to Change Australia
Jonathon works with university students locally at Monash Uni, overseeing the training of campus missionaries nationally and leading International Sending. This latter role involves everything to do with sending global missions (2-4 weeks), Short Term International missionaries (STINTers for 1-2 years) to long term missionaries to various places internationally.
WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING IN YOUR MINISTRY RECENTLY?Each summer we send mission teams to work with various younger people groups around the country, as well as global missions to Japan, Cambodia and the middle east. Just on the Cambodia mission, the team of 15 people initiated with over 200 locals, and saw 8 people pray to accept Jesus!
CAN YOU SHARE A STORY OF GOD AT WORK?
You may remember the story I shared last year and Michael in Central Asia who came to faith a month after I returned from my pastoral care trip overseas. Well, Michael subsequently invited his cousin to join the ministry activities over there and church and a shortly afterwards she also gave her life to Christ. And her friend whom she invited along came to faith a few weeks following! So within 3 months we saw 3 generations of new believers in this country. And that's just one chain of stories. There are plenty more all over the world as well as locally in Australia. I'm encouraged that God can use our small lives together in His big story!
WHAT'S COMING UP IN YOUR MINISTRY?This year I'm working as part of a team developing a new training program for new Interns with our ministry in Australia which we are calling Accelerate. The desire is to accelerate our impact for the Gospel across Australian university campuses through raising up more workers. Our goal is to launch this by June. The annual activies include: Orientation week outreaches across the country in February, Frontline (new missionary training) blocks in May, June, August and Sept-Oct, then our missions sent in Nov-Dec
WHAT ARE YOUR GREATEST NEEDS AT THE MOMENT?One of my greatest needs is to find some more people to help me in my International Sending role - my colleague in I.S. had to step down for a great reason: she recently welcomed her first child into the world!
HOW DOES YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT WORK AND HOW IS IT GOING?As a missionary, all my financial support comes from people and churches who support me. Due to increases in living and ministry expenses, I still have a monthly financial shortfall.
PRAY
Pray that I can find more people to come alongside me in my roles (it's a bit thin on right now) and pray for me as I juggle my roles - it can be fatiguing at times.
GIVE
If you would like to partner with me financially, you can do so at https://powertochange.org.au/give
CONNECT
If you would like to pray for me and my ministry, or get involved with Power to Change locally or globally, please email me at jon.kilchester@powertochange.org.au and checkout our website: www.powertochange.org.au
Want to get to know our other Members in Service?
Visit our missions page via the link below.
Things to pray for
Fuel Camp
Our Fuel Campers (High Schoolers and their leaders) are leaving at 6pm this Friday evening and returning at about 4pm on Sunday for the annual Fuel Camp. We currently have 77 young people registered, we’re going to Camp Manyung in Mt Eliza. We're excited for some wide games, time at the beach, and helping our kids go deeper in their relationships with Jesus.
We would love you to pray for the speaker, Reuben Rock, that he would be able to communicate the gospel super clearly for our young people; for the students, that they would really connect with Jesus in this time; and for the leaders - that we would all have plenty of energy to serve at camp out of the overflow of our relationship with Jesus!
Prayers and Squares
There will be three prayer quilts in the lobby this Sunday. Please stop and tie a knot in each to show your prayer support for these people. You can pray now, then, and/or some other time. Whichever way, your prayers are valued!
Lucy Burrows is two months old and has hip dysplasia which will require her to wear a brace for 4-6 months. Please pray that this will resolve the issue without need for surgery and that she and parents Cam and Alex will manage this well.
Sarojini Singh is 90 and had three strokes last year. Her medical issues did not resolve so she has now moved to aged care. Please pray as she adjusts.
Peter Singh is Sarojini's son. He moved from NSW to assist her and, while here, was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He has been weak and unwell. This week decisions will be made about his care and treatment. Please pray for this.
If you or anyone you know would like prayer and a quilt, please contact Rosie via the office 9803 9144 or rmerrigan@sb.org.au
I've prayed!
SYG 2025: AWAKEN
An Invitation to Pray As we prepare for this year’s SYG in June, we are filled with anticipation for how God will move among the young people gathering to encounter him.
This year’s theme, AWAKEN, calls us to open our eyes to what God is doing, to feel the warmth of his presence, and to experience the life found in Jesus.
Ephesians 5:13-14 reminds us: “But everything exposed by the light becomes visible – and everything that is illuminated becomes a light… Therefore it says, ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’”
During the General Coordinators’ orientation, we were deeply moved by the vision for this year’s theme. Genny, the Youth Pastor from Berwick Church of Christ and our speaker for SYG 2025, shared what God has placed on her heart: the simple yet profound power of the Gospel. As she spoke, it was clear that the Holy Spirit was already moving, stirring hearts and preparing the way for what’s to come.
We are calling on our church family to stand with us in prayer. We invite you to commit to praying for our youth and young adults during the speaker sessions on Saturday and Sunday from 8:30-9:30 pm at SYG. Let’s pray for hearts to be awakened, for lives to be transformed, and for the light of Christ to shine brightly. If you feel led to be part of this prayer movement, please reach out to us at mevas@sb.org.au. Your prayers will play a vital role in what God is doing at SYG this year. Thank you for your support and faithfulness. Blessings, The SYG Core Team
Find Out More
Coming Up
Next event Saturday March 29, 2pm
Our first Lounge Room event for the year is coming up and if you're a woman from any of our congregations or beyond, we'd love you to join us for a relaxed and fun time connecting with other women over delicious food and drink.
Theme for 2025
This year we'll be exploring the theme of 'purpose' in different ways through our events - what does it mean to live with purpose as women? How do we discern what our puurpose might be? What purposes do we all have in common and what are specific to us - based on our personality, experience, gifting, stage of life, opportunity and calling?
Date: Saturday, March 29
Time: 2pm-4pm
Cost: $15 to cover food and coffee/tea
Register below.
Register now
Support Foodbank as they support others
Our Community Care Foodbank provides struggling locals with pantry items they need. Every month you are invited to purchase and donate certain items the Foodbank requires.
This month's items are:
Dry biscuits
Pasta sauce
Canned Tuna (90g or 185g)
Sanitary pads
You can drop donations off in the shopping trolley near the High Street Road entrance to the West Auditorium lobby or in the tub in the East Fellowship Area.
Thanks so much for your support!
Know Your Bible - Bible study group for women
From 10-11am, every Wednesday during the school term, a Know Your Bible (KYB) group meets at Syndal Baptist Church.
Thousands of women across Australia and around the world use KYB studies to be challenged and grow in the faith and knowledge of God and his word. The KYB method helps women engage more deeply with what the Bible is saying, all in a group setting and at no cost.
The SBC group would love to welcome new members at any time!
Please contact the church office for more details (03) 9803 9144.
Next English Sermon Series
In the first chapter of Mark’s gospel, it says Jesus proclaimed ‘the good news’: the Kingdom of God has come near.
Why was that good news? Is it still good news? Does that change our understanding of the gospel – which literally means ‘good news’?
In this lent and Easter series, which starts this Sunday, we will explore the good news according to Jesus and how it can transform us and our world today.
Lent Resource
Did you know Lent started yesterday, Wednesday 5 March?
In Jo Swinney’s new book “The Whole Easter Story – why the cross is good news for all creation” we are taken on a Lenten journey exploring the broader impact of the Easter story on God's relationship with the whole of creation. There is no doubt that each of us has a personal place in the Easter story, yet what happened on the cross is not just a story of me and Jesus. It is far deeper and wider than that. Through Bible readings, reflections and stories from A Rocha's global conservation efforts we can see how the the first Easter transforms not just our own connection with Jesus, but also our relationships with each other and our world. Available at Koorong bookstores and other bookshops.
View book details
Accessible Prophecy gathering at NewHope
Cath Livesey is again joining us in Melbourne this year to help us explore how we can continue to nurture a strong prophetic culture in ourselves and our churches. We would love to see you there!
There are 3 events to choose from and a special three event ticket bundle.
Saturday 29th March 10am-4pm: Saturday GatheringThis is the main event of our national gathering. It is for anyone who desires to explore how to nurture prophecy in their own lives and in their churches regardless of denomination or worship style.
Friday Daytime 28th March 10am-3pm – Pastors and Leaders GatheringThis Pastors and Ministry leaders gathering will explore the challenges and joys of nurturing prophetic people.
Friday Night 28th March 6:30pm-9pm: Prophetic Ministry RoundtableThis Roundtable is for people already involved in prophetic ministry and who desire to grow in their prophetic gifting.
We have a group discount price for groups of 5 or more for the Saturday session.
We would love to see you there!
Register here
Congregation Spotlight
Mandarin Congregation
With Lu Chen, Pastor for Mandarin Congregation
WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING RECENTLY IN THE MANDARIN CONGREGATION?We just held our Mandarin family camp from 21st to 23rd February. During the camp, 52 people practiced Sabbath - we invited and equipped them to stop, to rest, to enjoy and to worship.
While we were there we also celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Mandarin congregation. Everyone was included in this. We even made a board where people could add family photos of brothers and sisters so that we may remember each family member in our prayers on Sabbath. During the camp, three people expressed their wish to be baptised in the days to come, which is very exciting!
WHAT HAVE YOU GOT COMING UP IN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS?We are running one or two Alpha groups for new friends, and preparing for a baptism service this coming Easter. We also plan to keep practicing the Sabbath together and growing in this area.
HOW CAN WE BE PRAYING FOR YOUR CONGREGATION?Please pray for more people to be willing to try out the Sabbath practice, and pray for the Alpha groups - both the ministry teams and the new friends who have joined the course. Please also pray for more people to be willing to get more deeply involved in various aspects of church life.
Green Tip of the Month
This month's Green Tip comes from Sustainability Victoria
Did you know that throwing chemicals in your rubbish bin is dangerous? They may explode, catch fire, leak or mix with other chemicals, either in your bin or in the collection truck or sorting facility.
Pouring them down the drain may pollute the environment, harm animals and vegetation, contaminate our water supply and make rivers and beaches unsafe for swimming.
Instead, you can drop off unwanted dangerous household chemicals at our free Detox Your Home events, which are licensed to accept toxic chemicals and staffed by trained specialist chemists.
Check out upcoming events via the link below.
Giving this week
GIVING UPDATE
Please note: We are reporting on 2 week's worth of figures due the staff retreat last week.
Week ending: 3/3/2025
Weekly target: $48,627
This week actual: $53,858 (111% of budget)
Year to date actual: $388,215 (89% of budget)
Week ending: 24/2/2025
Weekly target: $48,627
This week actual: $28,882 (59% of budget)
Year to date actual: $334,357 (86% of budget)
Sunday Service Information
This Sunday
Series: The Good News
Sermon: The Good News according to Jesus
Preacher: Mike Riddell
In the Gospel of Mark, it says that Jesus ‘proclaimed the good news’ – so what was the ‘good news’ according to Jesus? Is it still good news for us today?
Join us as Mike Riddell begins our new sermon series in the Gospel of Mark, as we explore the life and message of Jesus.
Coming Up
Sunday 16th March
Series: The Good News
Sermon: The Kingdom of God is God's
Preacher: Tim Dyer
According to Jesus, the good news is that the Kingdom of God has drawn near.
So what is the Kingdom of God like? This week, Tim Dyer will explore how Jesus himself described the Kingdom of God and how it can impact our approach to everyday life.
Sunday 23rd March
Series: The Good News
Sermon: Co-workers in the Kingdom
Preacher: Mike Riddell
When Jesus wandered towns and cities telling people the good news about the Kingdom of God, he built a team around him who he trained to do the same.
What did he ask them to do and how did they actually do it?
Are followers of Jesus today still called to do the same?
This week, Mike Riddell will look at the opportunities for us to participate in the Kingdom of God today.
Friday 30th March
Series: The Good News
Sermon: Good News for everyone
Preacher: Chris Danes
During Jesus’ ministry, the Jewish people wondered if he was the Messiah they’d been waiting for - the one who would bring long-awaited change.
But there were others from outside of Judaism who wondered if Jesus could offer them hope too. How did Jesus respond to them?
This week Chris Danes will explore an unusual interaction from Jesus’ life and help us better understand why it still represents good news.
Sunday 6th April
Series: The Good News
Sermon: The Good News is different than you think
Preacher: Andy Mitchell
When Jesus proclaimed the good news of the Kingdom of God, it was accompanied by all sorts of miracles and healings and wonders. It would have looked pretty incredible. But then Jesus started talking about how he was going to die.
How could death and suffering fit in with something that’s meant to be ‘good news’?
This week, Andy Mitchell will help us understand the good news and how it may be different than we might think.
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