Check out a little video we made of all the Wave Summer Sites stuff…

In Ephesians Paul speaks unpacks God’s great purpose in our world. God gives a clear view of the world through his own eyes and what becomes clear is that God’s purposes are all about bringing glory to himself through Jesus. In chapter 3 Paul is able to say…

10His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That’s both a humbling and terrifying statement! God in his infinite wisdom has chosen to make his wisdom known to the whole universe through the church. It’s humbling because God has included us in his work - we are to proclaim what he has accomplished in Christ to the world. And terrifying because he has included us in his work - what a responsibility. We’d love you to join us in prayer. Pray that through Kids Club, Adults section, and the coffee tent, God in his infinite wisdom would be making his wisdom known to the people of Newcastle. The team will spending some time praying for this @ 7.30pm on Saturday 9th January, Lambton High School. Please join us!

There are some more specific prayer points attached here if you are unable to make it that evening….

The year is quickly coming to an end and the New Year will kick off in less than a month.  Whilst in many ways nothing changes with a new year, it is often an opportunity to re-assess, re-evaluate and re-apply yourself in many different areas.

At church it is an opportunity to kick off the New Year in a new ministry, to pick up a ministry for the first time, to change your ministry focus and now is the time to be praying and thinking about that.

But before you do it is essential that we understand the biblical basis for serving.  Paul writes:

⁷But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. ⁸This is why it^[a] says:
“When he ascended on high,
he led captives in his train
and gave gifts to men.”^{[b] 9}(What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions^[c]? ¹⁰He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) ¹¹It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, ¹²to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

¹⁴Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.¹⁵Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. ¹⁶From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.  (Ephesians 4:7-16)

1. Gifts are given by Jesus to each one of us.

Which means that if you are a Christian then Jesus has given you gifts to be able to serve the church.  This means we can never say or think:  ”I am not important here!” or “My ministry is insignificant”.  Neither can we think or say:  ”I’ll do it all!”.  Each one of us has been gifted to serve the church by Jesus.

2. Word gifts are given to prepare us for ministry

Paul says that apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor-teachers are gifted by Jesus to serve the church.  These are all word based gifts!  But notice they are not the ones who do all the ministry.  In fact, they prepare God’s people for works of service/ministry.  This is an important distinction to make.  What this means for us is that we are all in ministry but some are gifted with word ministries so the rest of us can get on with the job of loving and serving one another.  In a recent sermon by Andrew Heard he made the point very clear.

God has given these four gifts to get you and me off our butts… to get us up an going in works of ministry. You don’t employ a minister to do the work of ministry, the work of service. You employ a minister so that he might get you doing the works of ministry. It is a great tragedy that ministers hog the priveldge and joy of serving to themselves. And it is a great tragedy when congregations think they are winning when someone does it for them, when in fact they are losing.

3.  Gifts are given by Jesus to grow us to maturity

Many people think that our giftedness and service is the end point of maturity.  How many times have you judged someone’s maturity in Christ by judging how much ministry they do?!  But that is not the point of the gifts.  The gifts are not given to set people apart from the rest.  But Jesus has graciously given some people particular gifts so you, and the whole church, can grow to maturity in Christ as you serve one another, speaking truth in love, eaxch part doing its work.

So my question for you is, how are serving the church?

There are so many ways to serve at Hunter Bible Church. If you want to serve contact one of the pastors of HBC, organise to meet up and have a coffee, and talk with them about where you would like serve.

Magnification - Dave Moore

Mission - Sam Hilton

Membership - Dave Allen

Maturity & Ministry  - Richard Sweatman

As God’s people we believe that Jesus is the most important person in the universe. It follows then that sharing Jesus with our local community through spoken words and practical works is the most important thing we can do with our time, energy, money and resources.

WAVE Kids Club is all about seeing Jesus transform the city of Newcastle.

In order to get WAVE Kids Club off the ground each year it costs an enormous amount of money and requires enormous amounts involvment from Hunter Bible Church.  There are loads of ways you can get involved…

If you would like to help out with…

WAVE Kids Club… Chris & Karen or Sam

Cooking….  speak to John and Tagi

Adults coffee tent… speak to Christine

Registration… speak to Steve

The types of people needed for registration are:

1 Welcoming Person – Meet and Greet

Requirements: Friendly, outgoing, likes meeting people, good with names etc

3 Registration People – Record people have arrived, check registration forms etc, ideally data entry as well.

Requirements – attention to detail, good  at admin stuff.  (Need  2 out of 3 people to be good at computer data entry, ideally all 3.)

3 People for name tags – friendly, able to find printed stickers and write new stickers and ask about allergies.

Equipment… Sam

Download WAVE Application form!!  Or you can fill it in online (wave-2010-registration-form)

This is the third post in a series of posts helping us to know and understand what WAVE Summer Festival is all about.  The previous two post can be found here and here…

Why do we do it?

As a church we believe that Jesus is the most important person in the universe. It follows then that sharing Jesus with our local community through spoken words and practical works is the most important thing we can do with our time, energy, money and resources. WAVE Summer Festival is all about seeing Jesus transform the city of Newcastle.

Who do we need?

Ideas people: We need dreamers and schemers who can make things happen. We want to encourage you to work out how your particular passions, gifts, hobbies, interests etc. could be used to serve our community and/or provide an opportunity for us to speak about Jesus. But ideas without actions are just ideas.

Do-ers: Perhaps you are like me and you have never had an original thought for your entire existence on this planet. If that is the case then you may be the do-er we are looking for. The ideas people are going to struggle to make things happen and they need you to help them make someone else’s project under the umbrella of WAVE Summer Festival a roaring success.

WAVE Kids Club Team Leaders: WAVE Kids Club is one of the many events that will be put on by Hunter Bible Church over the Summer period. During the week of WAVE Kids Club we boldy preach Jesus to over 150 kids and more than 60 adults each day. But to make this happen we need team leaders who are godly and care about the Jesus being preached well to people of all ages. These are the areas where Team Leaders are needed…

• Sprinkles (6 months to 1 year old)
• Tic Tacs (2-3 years old)
• Skittles (4yrs to Kinder)
• M&M’s (years 1-2)
• Khaos (years 3-5)
• Rock (years 6-8)
• Solid (years 9-12+)
• Equipment Team (includes co-ordinating a Pack-up and Set up Team)
• Cooking
• Sideline Cafe
• Registration
• Kids Concert Time

WAVE Kids Club Team Partners: WAVE kids club also requires a multitude of helpers who make up the teams. Again, these people need to be godly and care enourmously about Jesus being preached without putting up unecessary barriers to people hearing the gospel.

What else do we need?

Prayer

Money

Equipment that you are willing to loan to us

Life to the Full… Is it possible??

In our broken world it is hard to imagine that Life to the Full is anything but a pipe dream. But Jesus, and his followers, claim that Life to the Full is possible. Come along and join us for a series of casual dinners where we’ll get to have a first hand look at the fundamental message Jesus Christ taught. Here more from someone who came along last year…

Week 1 (April 27): The Man You Can’t Ignore!

Jesus: Lord, Liar, Lunatic or Legend?

Week 2 (May 4): The Bible - Is It A Reliable Record?

Many suggest Chinese whispers shaped the Bible.Others suggest it’s full of fairy stories and inaccuracies. Is there evidence for its historical truth and can we therefore rely on it?

Week 3 (May 11): What Happens When God & Man Meet?

A God of love and a God of justice. Which is he? Is he both?

Which are we? Good, bad, or both?
What happens therefore when we die?

Week 4 (May 18): Jesus Is Executed - Why?

Of what significance is it to me?

Is he dead or alive?
How would you know?

Week 5 (May 25): How Would Jesus Have Us Respond?

What is a Christian?How do you become one? How is life any different?

Place: Waterboard Bowling Club, North Lambton

Time: 6pm - 8pm

Cost: $5 (includes dinner and dessert)

Registration: please fill out form here…

More info?? Email James Deaton

This event is put on by Hunter Bible Church.

Over the past few years the WAVE Summer Festival has included Carols, Christmas Services, the WAVE Kids Club and a Jazz Concert. Over the next few years we want to continue to build on the existing structures that make up the Summer Festival. We want to see people within HBC to be thinking about and also seeing through ideas that will enable us as a church to serve and love the community over the Christmas period.

Some ideas that have already been posed:

• Shopping Trolley Drive at the local shops to gather goods for Anglicare or the Salvation Army or some other well organised charity we can trust.

• New Years Eve Party relief centre: New Years Eve is not always a happy time for people. Some have suggested it would be a good idea to offer our services to people in the city who need something to eat and somewhere to rest, or someone to talk to, or just need to sober up before going home.

• Art/Photography Workshops: We have some very talented artists and photographers in our church and this would be a great service to our community to put on workshops for teenagers who are at a loose end over the summer holidays.

• Concerts

• Christmas Eve Service

• Holiday Grievers Service: the Christmas Holidays are often a difficult time for people who have lost loved ones. We want to acknowledge that as Christians and offer people a chance to grieve and talk about lost ones as well as speak about the hope we can have in Jesus.

In other words, the WAVE Summer Festival Could include anything. Just depends on whether you have the energy to make an idea work for the sake of God’s kingdom.

What is the WAVE Summer Festival?

WAVE Summer Festival’ is the umbrella name for all the events and programs that will take place from December 2009 through to Jan 2010. In the past we have thought of WAVE as the one week kids club that we hold at Lambton High School in January. But from 2009 on we want to think about ‘WAVE Summer Festival’ as a season of programmes and events put on by Hunter Bible Church.

Summer is the season of festivals. There is no shortage of festivals over the Australian summer season - Music and Arts festivals, Cultural festivals, Food and Wine festivals, to name a few. So, why one more festival? Especially when Newcastle already has the Live Sites, Cinema Under the Stars, Darby Street Festival, Beaumont Street Festival, Olive Tree Markets, Warners Bay Jazz in the Park!!

We’re hoping this festival will be unique in two ways. Our hope is that the programmes and events run under the umbrella of ‘WAVE Summer Festival’ will not only provide entertainment & social arenas but will also give us as a church a chance to simply serve the community we live in and provide us with opportunities to preach Jesus in the city of Newcastle.

We’d love to see you get on board in 2009… more on how later…