What skills do you reckon every Christian should try and grow in?

Bible reading? Prayer? Evangelism? Welcoming? Caring for people? Helping a mate understand God’s Word better? Others?

What skills do you reckon help churches grow and reach more people?

Growth Group leading skills? Musician skills? Kids teaching skills? Preaching skills? Big Bible Idea thinking skills? Others?

MondayMadSkills is all about helping you develop your Christian skills so you can serve Jesus better and be part of god using HBC to reach more people for Jesus’ glory. Its training with eternity in mind.

MadSkills kicks off again on Monday 25th July at Heaton Public School at 5pm - 7pm.

What happens at Monday Mad Skills?

Each week, we start off with the Mad Hour from 5pm-6pm. Its an hour diving into the depths of a big topic or idea from the bible; God’s Sovereignty, Utilitarianism, Men/Women in creation and ministry, Early Church history, Trinity, etc… The aim is that you walk out of this Mad Hour seeing how that idea affectsevery day of the rest of your life.

After a quick break, we split into classes for our Skills Hour from 6pm-7pm. In this hour, you’ll be part of a smaller group that spends 6 or 12 weeks getting practical training in a ministry skill.

What Classes are Available in Semester Two 2011?

• Two Ways to Live: How to clearly explain the gospel to non-Christians
• Passing the baton*: How to read the bible with someone 1 on 1 like a legend
• Open Doors and Open Hearts*: How to love people who are new to church
• For the Poor*: How to think and behave towards the poor as Christians
• Growth Group Leaders Training: How to prepare and lead a group into the depths of God’s Word
• Kids for Christ*: How to teach the bible with kids in mind… whether its Sunday School, Scripture or YouthGroup

* These courses have been developed exclusively by people from Hunter Bible Church!!

What are life dinners?

Simple really.  We are praying that groups of people will gather friends and family together for a meal or social event that is explicitly geared towards introducing people to Jesus.  We will provide a speaker to doa short 5 minute talk and who can answer questions and you do the rest.

Some ideas:

• cheese, wine and lamb night
• nachos and mexican beer
• coffee and dessert
• backyard bbq with fire pit
• tapas
• winter soup night
• high tea
• cup cakes (those fancy ones)
• mystery beer night

Don’t start with a big program.  Don’t suddenly think you can add to your church budget and begin.  Start personally and start in your home.  I dare you.  I dare you in the name of Jesus Christ.  Do what I am going to suggest.  Begin by opening your home for community… you don’t need a big program.  You don’t have to convince your session or board.  All you have to do is open your home and begin.  And there is no place in God’s world where there are no people who will come and share a home as long as it is a real home.

Join us for 5 weeks to hear about the basic message of Christianity and ask any questions which you may have.

Location: Jesmond Uniting Church, Robert St, Jesmond

Time: 10am-12pm Thursdays

Dates: August 4, 11, 18, 25 & September 1

Cost: Free

You’ll also have the opportunity to meet some new people. Crèche and Morning tea are provided.

More info? Contact Kelly

Hunter Mens Convention, organised by Hunter Gospel Ministries is happening this year on Saturday September 3 at Metford Baptist Church.  The speaker is Ray Galea and the theme is ‘Life, no regrets’.  Cost will be about $40.

photo credit: The Slushey One

Ray is a gifted preacher and author who recently wrote God is enough and Nothing in my hand I bring.  It should be a great conference.

Brochures will arrive soon but for now I’m looking for one bloke from each congregation who’d be willing to stand up the front and say something along the lines of:  “I’ve been before and loved it.  I’m going this year.  You should too”.  If that’s you, send me an email and we’ll book you in (richard@hunterbiblechurch.org).

I’m Happy I Suck.

For 4 weeks now we have been in the book of Romans and if you know anything about Romans you will know that from 1:18 through to 3:20 there isn’t much “good news”. 4 weeks looking at how much we suck. Things like “No one is righteous, not even one. No one seeks God. All have turned away.” And other long lists of all the things we do because we are evil.

But the funny thing is that each week as we look at how much we “suck” I have walked away happy. Happy? I have also noticed the same thing happening to the kids that I have been preaching to at Youth Group and in my Growth Group. Why is that? I don’t usually walk away from a person that tells me how bad I am, happy. I usually go away trying to convince myself that I am special and they just don’t see all the good things I do.

So why have I walked away happy? I think the reason is because as we hear the truth (the real truth) that we aren’t good, it frees us. It frees us to stop pretending that we are good. It actually takes a lot of energy to spend your life pretending you are something you are not.

So we are freed to come clean and admit: “I’m not a good person.” There, I said it. Who wants to join me?

The “good news” is that God doesn’t leave us here. “But now a righteousness from God has been made known”. Not a goodness that comes from us but a goodness that comes from God through Jesus Christ. His goodness and perfection have been counted to us and he takes on our sin. The great exchange has taken place. What wonderful news this is!

I love the words of that famous hymn;

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Your cross I cling.

What are you bringing to God? The way I see it you can either bring nothing (as in recognise you aren’t righteous) or you can bring nothing (as in your good works). Which truth do you believe?

Last night a few of us got together after Unichurch to try and understand the Bible and theology better.  We call it the White Horse Inn.  Here’s last night’s questions:

1.  Is my NIV (or other English translations) the authorative inspired Word of God or only the original Greek and Hebrew?

2.  If redemption is ‘rescue at the cost of a ransom’.  Who did Jesus pay the ransom to when he redeemed us?

photo credit: philobiblon

These are excellent questions and full of practical consequences.  For the answers you have to be there!   We meet at 17 Turana, North Lambton at Laura and Dee’s place (excellent hosts) from about 10:15 to 11:30.  Hope to see you there with your questions and Bibles open.

In third term this year we are hoping to run a series of Life Dinners (or a variation of this idea i.e. morning tea, beer and prawns night etc.). We are praying that dinners and other events will be put on by individuals within the church or growth groups.

The idea is you grab some mates and invite them to your event with a speaker who will be trained by Greg Lee and Sam Hilton.  There will be a 5 minute talk and an extended question time.  The goal is to get people chatting about Jesus and offer them an invitation to the LIFE course that will be running in third term. It would be great to raise this idea with your growth group before the break and get people praying about this opportunity.

For more information contact Hugh Jonas or Sam Hilton.

Unichurch is moving!!

For the next four Sundays (starting on June 12), Unichurch will not be in the CT theatre. Instead, Unichurch will be meeting in the main GP lecture theatre (GP 1.1) at Newcastle Uni.

GP 1.1 is very close to the CT theatre, and people from Unichurch will be at the Maths Bus Stop and outside the CT theatre to point you in the right direction. You won’t get lost

Only the location of church is changing. Unichurch cafe will still be starting at 6:30, the main meeting at 7, and supper kicking on afterwards till 10.

This is a great week to come back to church!

If you haven’t been able to make it to church much this semester, this is a great week to come along.

We have been going through the book of Romans and seen that basically, before God we are all stuffed. As Paul says, “There is no one righteous, not even one.”

But now comes the amazing good news of God’s mercy. We are going to see God’s rescue plan for people who are stuffed! This is a great week to come back to church and bring a friend!!

See you Sunday

If you didn’t know HBC pm is moving from 5pm to 4.30 and from the Alice Ferguson Centre to Lambton High School this weekend. Here is an email from the membership team etting you know how to prepare and pray for the move….

Hello Hunter Bible Church pm,

It is not far away now. 2 more sleeps until we will be meeting at Lambton High at 4.30pm.

I have been talking to lots of people who are excited and really looking forward to the new possibilities for us to grow as a church, particularly with the introduction of Kids Church.

It would be great for us to be praying for our Kids Church helpers. Thank God for their willingness to serve us and for his help as they teach our kids about Jesus.

God thanks for the willingness of the Kids Church helpers to serve us by caring for and teaching our kids about you.

Please help them to teach the truth about Jesus to our kids in a way that is fun and interesting for them.

Please help our parents to be bringing up their kids to know the truth about you in their homes and for them to be godly parents.

A couple of things you might like to know about Kids Church.

Parents can drop their kids off with the Kids Church helpers from 4.15. Kids Church will be held in B Block, behind the hall.

Parents are to pick their kids up after the formal part of church.

Hot tip with Kids Church Helpers

*Get to know them and include them in our church family*

Can i ask again that the regulars park in the car park on Womboin Rd. That leaves plenty of car spaces out the front for new people.

Thanks

The Membership Crew