A Minute with Chris
Senior Pastor
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Thursday 5 September, 2024
We've recently been exploring the Book of Leviticus in our English congregations, and as we've navigated this tricky text, there's been some great opportunites for reflection.
In Leviticus 7:11-34 you will find what is described by some as the original thank offering. The offering is given as unto the Lord out of a thankful heart.
Unlike offerings for guilt, and sin, the thank offering is a volitional act of praise and thanksgiving to God. Interestingly there are three beneficiaries of such an offering. The Lord, the priests, and the people.
It fascinates me that God doesn’t take all of the thanksgiving offering for Himself but legislates that it be used to bless the priests and the friends and family of the person who offers it.
The very nature of God is to give, and give freely. We often forget that all we have has been given by God, and that rather than earning blessing for ourselves because of our own merit. God in His generosity has given all we have, including salvation and new life through his son Jesus Christ.
As we move towards our 70th anniversary this year we want to meaningfully offer thanksgiving to God in both word and action. God has been good and faithful to us as a community for seven decades now, and there is much to be thankful for.
As we seek to Present Jesus, Provide Nurture, and Produce Disciples in the coming decades it is my hope that our praise and thanksgiving to God will be at the forefront of our fruitfulness.
In the weeks leading up to our anniversary, as we worship together…as we serve together…and as we pray together at Church at Prayer my hope is that God will hear our thanksgiving as a sweet offering of our gifts to him.
Then as a culmination leading into our anniversary, like the people of God over the millennia, as it was in Leviticus, Philippians and Corinthians we want to give the opportunity for an actual thank offering, where we’ll be able to offer both a financial gift of thanksgiving, as well as our words of thanksgiving to the One who has called us and kept us for 70 years.
Blessings,
Chris Danes
What's Coming Up?
Church at Prayer
We have our next Church at Prayer event coming up on Wednesday 11th September at 7.30pm in the West Auditorium.
As we approach SBC's 70th Anniversary, we'll be taking the opportunity to offer God prayers of thanksgiving for all he has done in and through SBC, and we'll be praying and listening together in regards to what might lie ahead for the church.
Our prayer team will also be available during the night for personal prayer.
We hope to see you there!
Season of Creation
Season of Creation has kicked off and there are some great opportunities to engage with God through his creation during September.
The Creation Care Team have scheduled 3 events running over the next 3 Sundays, as well as compiled some helpful resources you might want to check out.
Find everything about Season of Creation via the button below.
Find Out More
Anniversary Celebration
We'll be celebrating Syndal Baptist Church's 70th Anniversary on Sunday 13th October at Crossway Baptist Church, and we'd love you to be there.
It will be amazing to worship as one church of over 1000 people, and reflect on all that God has done in the last 70 years, and what he might do in the next 70!
There will be a great service at 4pm, and from 5.30pm there will be food trucks, activities, games, food and drink, and great community.
For lots of helpful information about the event, click below.
Find Out More
Please consider serving in one of these teams
Communion Team
We are really in need of more people for our 9am and 11am English Communion teams.
Involvement in this team means serving once every two months. If this is something you could help with please contact Larissa via lwanstall@sb.org.au.
Connect TeamWe are also looking for more people to join our Connect team at the 11am Egnlish service. We love for everyone who comes to Syndal to feel welcomed and help them feel connected. If this is something you think you could be a part of, we would love to chat to you. Please contact Larissa (lwanstall@sb.org.au) or Mandy (MStark@sb.org.au) or sign up directly via the Volunteer application form at sb.org.au/serve
Sign up to serve
Mission Exposure Opportunity with Compassion
An opportunity has arisen to join Crossway Baptist on a Compassion Field Experience trip to Indonesia in January 2025.
Field experiences provide a valuable opportunity to experience Compassion’s work firsthand. You’ll be challenged and inspired as you engage with our local church partners and their communities. Prepare to make new friends, experience different cultures, and discover more about yourself and God's plan for his world! You'll get the chance to see firsthand how Compassion's local church partners serve their communities in Indonesia. On this trip you will travel to Bali, Kupang and Alor Island, linking up with local church communities for worship and service alongside each other. For an insight into what there trips are like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFMWZl4xmFw For more info about this trip in particular, click below.
Find Out More
Prayers and Squares
There will a prayer quilt in the foyer this Sunday. Please take the time to stop, pray and tie a knot for Lachlan if you are at church.
Lachlan is 29 and since he was 15 has had severe fistulising Crohn’s disease. In April he was admitted to hospital after a minor motorbike accident where the stress of the injuries caused complications with his Crohn’s. He ultimately required lifesaving surgery to remove his large bowel and was intubated in ICU for 5 days. Lachlan continues in hospital, with his mum Alison by his side whenever she is able.
If you won't be at church to tie a knot this Sunday, you can indicate you've prayed via the button below.
If you'd like to request a quilt, contact Rosie on rmerrigan@sb.org.au or via the church office on (03) 9803 9144.
I've prayed!
Cafe Closed September 29
The cafe will not be open on Sunday 29th September as it is a long weekend as well as the middle week of school holidays.
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:
Packet of biscuits (savory or sweet)
Rice Bubbles or Cornflakes
Pasta Sauce
Museli bars (pack of 5 or 6)
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!
Membership Application
When someone applies to become an official member at Syndal Baptist Church, we communicate this to the church for two weeks. If there is any reason the membership should not be approved please contact Chris Danes via cdanes@sb.org.au with any concerns.
The following people have applied for membership:
Elvera Stow
Apply for membership
Next English Sermon Series
What’s your purpose in life? Do you feel like you have an answer to that question?
And maybe just as importantly…do you feel like your life reflects your answer to that question? What does Jesus teach about living a life of purpose?
In this short series, we’ll be exploring what it means to live a purposeful life and how we can get started today.
Series starts in English congregations Sunday 22nd September.
Get to know our staff
Each month we'll learn a little more about one of our fantastic staff team.
Tom Postlethwaite
Youth Ministry Apprentice
Describe your job like you're explaining it to a five year old. I help Way organise Fuel by making sure the leaders have what they need and making sure the everyone has fun and learns about Jesus!
Favourite Ice Cream Flavour? Rum and raisin all the way!
Best subject at High School? Ended up being physics. Couldn't tell you anything about it now!
If you could be instantly amazing at something, what would you choose? Calligraphy.
Where did you grow up? A little town called Sale, which is two-ish hours down the highway.
What's your favourite Bible passage/Bible story and why? Passage? Romans 8:6. Story? I really love Jonah and the fish.
What do you love most about Syndal Baptist Church? I love the community, but I love the preaching most. Being encouraged and challenged from the Bible week in and week out? Can't beat it.
Member in Service Spotlight
Stephanie and Richard
Education Coordinator OM Africa / Training Coordinator OM Ghana
Stephanie and Richard work in the northern region in Ghana in training and education. They help disciple followers of Jesus to engage their communities, sow gospel seeds, and share the love of Jesus particularly among the least-reached people groups in the Sahel.
WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING IN YOUR MINISTRY RECENTLY?Recently we had a group of participants from across Africa complete their discipleship and missions training. During the training we trained them in practical mission skills, how to share and live out their faith with others of a different faith, and how to live and work among a specific people group in the Sahel region. It was exciting to see how they applied the training during their 1 month practical work in the villages where they started a number of Bible study groups with those interested. They have since graduated and returned home to serve in a number of different countries.
WHAT'S COMING UP IN YOUR MINISTRY?
Coming up in the ministry we are helping facilitate a 6 week training with leaders from across Africa. The focus is on living and working in the Sahel region, particularly among the people there that have no gospel access. As we pull leaders together from across this region we want to encourage and equip them both in practical ministry skill, as well as disciple and help their grow in their own walk with Jesus. At the end of the 6 weeks, these leaders will be able to train and disciple other Jesus followers in their own areas.
HOW HAVE YOU SEEN GOD AT WORK?In July we held our first training graduation in the North of Ghana. All 13 of our participants graduated after 5 months of intensive training in missions and discipleship. During the 5 months, they also spent 1 month in the field putting into practice what they learnt and starting DBS groups in 4 different communities. Not only did the participants learn knowledge and skills, but God worked on their lives to change their character and heart. One of the participants gave this testimony:
“After the Medical Outreach, I went home to visit my family (my wife, two children and my mother). The first day that I reached home, I ran to my wife and hugged her. “Is this a dream or real?”, she said, “Since we got married, you have never done something like this to me before.” It is true I have never hugged her before. This made me to be ashamed of myself, but I realised that I had begun to change. Later that evening when my wife started to cook, I quickly joined her for us to do the cooking together and she was again surprised! “Is this my husband?” Yes, I have changed! She was full of joy and happiness, that we all cook together and even ate together.
After eating, we all took our two children to bath them, a further surprise for my wife, but a joy for me. When we were cooking and bathing our children together, my mother was so surprised because she was watching us and asking herself what’s going on in the house. She asked me, what strange thing I’m doing in this house. She has never seen me cooking with my wife and wondered if my wife put something in my food to make me like this! In my culture, a man does not go to the kitchen or cook for his wife or any woman. Before the training, I would not join my wife in cooking. She would do all the household chores and even eat separately while I also eat separately. But now I’ve seen that if I want my wife to be valuable and our family to see joy I have to serve and support my wife and the community. I’m changing the narrative in my village. My mother is thankful and astonished for the change which has happened to me.”
Since graduation, this participant has gone back to his village in the north of Ghana to continue sharing Jesus' love with those around him.
WHAT ARE YOUR GREATEST NEEDS AT THE MOMENT?Our greatest needs at the moment is for more workers for the field. There are so many opportunities to be in these communities sharing the gospel and discipling the new believers, but the workers are few.
PRAY
People can pray for more workers to be sent to the harvest fields here, and in the meantime for our team to be sustained and strengthened as we continue sharing the gospel and discipling followers of Jesus to be disciple makers.
GIVE
If people would like to support the ministry work, they can pray for us, write to us to encourage us in the work, or give financially through the OM Australia office.
CONNECT
If people would like to connect with us they can contact the church office to get our email address and sign up to receive our newsletter and prayer updates.
Want to get to know our other Members in Service?
Visit our missions page via the link below.
What's been happening?
Baptisms in Mandarin Congregation
By Lu Chen
In our congregation, two Life Groups have been running the Alpha course recently, which has been great.
We were so pleased that some of our new friends became Jesus followers through the course and we celebrated 7 baptisms on August 25th.
We'd love your continued prayer for the spiritual growth of these new believers, that they and all of us would continue to grow into maturity in our faith.
Karinya Making an Impact
By Mandy Wood
Karinya Counselling Centre recently ran a professional development training day on Expressive Therapies for counsellors, psychologists, students and chaplains serving their local communities. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and the participants left gaining valuable knowledge, skills and tools that enable them to further support their clients in different ways. One participant wrote that they left feeling they gained “hope and joy that I will see more change and breakthrough with my clients (and in my own life)”. Karinya Counselling Centre is planning to run more training days that equip and bless those that work in helping and serving roles in the community.
Women's Retreat
By Fiona Brown
On the weekend of the 24th-25th August, we held our first Lounge Room Women's Retreat.
Over 60 women gathered over those two days, and enjoyed some great sessions with Lynn Moresi and Mandy Wood along with some other great activities.
Some of us tried out Archery and Tree Rolling (like a high ropes course that you could do on a scooter or blindfolded), while others were happy to walk to the beach, or sit and chat while doing paint by numbers or personal craft projects.
It was awesome to see women welcoming one another and being courageous in chatting with others from different congregations, generations and backgrounds.
Ministry Spotlight
Young Adults
With Micah Evans (Pastor for YA)
Central Young Adults provides relational space for people 18-30(ish) to explore and mature into becoming more resilient followers of Jesus and participate in the blessing community.
What's been happening in the YA ministry recently?This year in Central, we have been wrestling with the question, "What does it mean to live as an Image of God?" The young ads have taken on this question by exploring Genesis 1-11, reading, discussing, and meditating on the scriptures in community.
Where have you seen God at work?There are two things that I would love to share:
1. There has been a surge of young adults taking steps of faith in baptism, church membership, and their discipleship journey. The past few months have been the best kind of busy and a lot of fun.
2. Our youngest life group had grown to a size that called for their multiplication into two smaller groups. The group successfully multiplied two weeks ago, creating two new life groups. This is very exciting because these smaller life groups have created space to grow deeper in their relationships with each other and a place for new people to participate in the community.
What challenges have you been facing, or what needs do you have?Like most ministries, we need leaders. Specifically women leaders. Young adults or not, I would be thrilled to chat with you if you believe God is calling you to serve young adults.
What's coming up in the YA ministry?As we come to the end of the year, we are excited to see how the Lord concludes our study of Genesis 1-11, and we are equally excited to begin the transition of graduating year 12 from high school into the Central space.
PRAY
Please pray for God's wisdom for the young adult life group as they wrestle with what it means to live as an image of God and how they express it in their everyday lives.
SERVE
These three places for people can serve in the Young Adult's Ministry. 1. As a life group leader, they care for and lead young people as they seek to mature in following Jesus and participating in the community. 2. Central Core Team - The Core Team helps set the culture and goals for the Young Adult Ministry. 3. Volunteer to serve dinner at a Central gathering. It is a lighter commitment but a great way to get to know some of the young ads in our ministry.
CONNECT
Contact person: Micah Evans mevans@sb.org.au socail media: Facebook: @Syndalbaptistyoungadults Instagram: @Syndalbaptistyoungadults
Green Tip of the Month
This month's Green Tip comes from SBC member, Julia Jardine.
Natural decorations: Bringing the beauty of nature indoors and decorating our home with nature's bounty collected from the garden, along nature strips and in reserves is uplifting, calming, and doesn't cost a cent or generate any waste! There is some great inspiration online at websites such as this one: https://www.greenhousestudio.co/home-garden/decorating-with-nature-found-objects
Giving Last Month
GIVING SUMMARY
Week ending: 2/9/2024
Given this week: $47,634
YTD Weekly Average: $45,521 (Weekly budget $45,000)
Total given so far this year (YTD): $1,593,239
Percentage of Budget: 101%
Difference between actual figures and budget: $11,148 above accumulative budget
Sunday Service Information
This Sunday
Series: You Lost Me at Leviticus
Sermon: Purity
Preacher: Andrew Bawden
In our culture, the word ‘purity’ has some interesting, and often unhelpful, connotations. But what did it mean to God’s people as he instructed them in how they would live and interact with him in the new nation he was building?
Thousands of years later, in our culture, what has changed about God’s views on purity and what has stayed the same?
This week, Andrew Bawden will help explain the teaching around purity in the Book of Leviticus – what they meant then, and what we might still learn from them now.
Coming Up
Sunday 15th September
Series: You Lost Me at Leviticus
Sermon: Atonement
Preacher: Micah Evans
At the centre of the Book of Leviticus is a practice which was central to the people God was establishing after the exodus from Egypt – Atonement.
What was it all about and why was it so important?
In this final week of ‘You lost me at Leviticus’, Micah Evans will help us uncover its significance and why it not only shaped God’s people, but also shaped world history.
Sunday 22nd September
Series: Purposeful
Sermon: Where Have You Been?
Preacher: Chris Danes
When we look back over our lives, we can find all sorts of things. Sometimes we see beauty, sometimes we see ugliness, and sometimes it feels like we can’t see anything particularly special at all. But what might God see in our past? What might he be able to do with our experiences? What might he have already been doing that we might have missed?
In this first week of our ‘Purposeful’ series, Chris Danes will help us look at where we’ve been with a fresh perspective to help us see where we might go next.
Sunday 29th September
Series: Purposeful
Sermon: Where Are You Now?
Preacher: Bill Brown
Each new day is filled with countless decisions, interactions and opportunities. What are we doing with them? How do we make them count for something? What might Jesus see when he looks at our everyday lives?
In this message, Bill Brown will explore what it means to make the most of now as we seek to live lives of purpose.
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