The HBC Elders and advisors met again last night. After looking at John 13 together and praying about serving and loving like Jesus, we got to work on a couple of things.

Our treasurer Steve Elliot, took us through how we’re going as a church meeting our “gospel investment” expectations for 2010. Though giving has been a little under what we anticipated, we hope and pray that church members would consider their method and generosity of giving such that we’d still meet expectations for 2010. Steve will be emailing members about this soon. (Small plug… setting up a regular transfer is a great way to be regular and faithful in giving - see how to do it here)

We talked about some more things like; how to appropriately handle giving specifically directed towards MTS. We made some plans to write up some more detailed “appointment process” documents for staff and elders. We talked about what needs to happen to set up a “building fund”, as well as the need and potential of renting some office space in the meantime.

Please remember to pray for our elders, and for our church as we think about things like handling money and think about office space and buildings - that we’d be doing the very best thing for Jesus and HIS kingdom.

Did you know about MTS at HBC?  You can check it out at ‘Ministry Apprentices’ under ‘who we are’.  This post is to invite you to the very first annual ‘MTS Supporters Night’ on Saturday January 23rd, 7:30-9:30 at Hamilton Baptist Church.

This is a night where you can meet our 9 trainees, find out more about what MTS is all about, ask questions and pray for our trainees.  I’m hoping lots of people will catch the vision for raising up the next generation of gospel workers.

This night is especially for non-HBC people who prayerfully or financially support our MTS trainees.  But it’s also for all HBC people.  All of us financially support these guys and girls through our general giving so we should be interested in what they’re doing and where they’re heading.

RSVP to Richard Sweatman or any MTS trainee.  I’d love to see 60-70 people there!

During 2010 six of our MTS apprentices will be preaching at UniChurch on Paul’s letter to the Philippians which speaks clearly on the centrality of Christ in every part of life.

This series will be spread out over the year, but make sure you get along and hear these young men opening the word of God. Also the second year apprentices (Ben, Geoff, Steve & James) will take questions from the floor after their talks.

So get along to UniChurch in 2010, it’s going to be a great year of opening God’s word and worshiping together.

By the way, if you’re wondering about the jumble of words in the graphic… It’s a word cloud made from the text of Philippians. The bigger the word the more times it occurs in the book. Pretty cool huh? Check out www.wordle.net if you’d like to mess around with this yourself.

Over the long weekend about 50 people from HBC went along to the Spur 09 conference in Katoomba.  Spur 09 is a conference run by MTS (mts.com.au) to challenge people to think about living for Christ with their whole lives (full time ministry being a definite option).

As we drove up to Katoomba, fog covered the mountains.  Visibility was almost zero, the mood was oppressive and I was sure one of us would have an accident.

Thankfully we all survived.  It got me thinking about how life without the light and clarity of God’s world is like driving through fog.  Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.”

Over the weekend, Phillip Jensen and Greg Lee opened God’s word to us, blowing away the fog of worldly thinking.  Some highlights for me were…

We are ‘creatures’ and so therefore have a purpose.  But we are created and owned by another.  It is God therefore and not us who defines our purpose.  Consider Acts 13:36 ‘For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed.’  (Phillip Jensen, talks 1 and 2).

‘The only valid reason to do full time ministry is because you want to give everything to God’ (Greg Lee talk 1 preaching from Romans 12:1-8).

‘Christians don’t have a career, just a job’ (Phillip Jensen talk 2).

Word ministry is more important than general ministry but the ‘minister of the word’ is no more important than anyone else (Greg Lee talk 2 from Romans 12:1-8).

Two questions to ask regarding your gifts:  ‘What does the church need?’ and ‘Does good come from my contribution?’ (Greg Lee talk 2)

Christ comes before your family and parents.  ‘If your children come before Christ they will think they are God’ (Phillip Jensen talk 3)

The fog of worldly thinking was blown away.  We were challenged to live for Christ.  Where is the fog blowing over your eyes?

dining out at the staff common room

The Spur Conference 09 (formerly known as Club 5 or Challenge) is an excellent conference organised by MTS aimed at raising up the next generation of gospel workers.  It’s for people who are thinking or planning about the future and wondering whether full time Gospel ministry is for them.  It will challenge you to give up worldly success for the sake of Christ’s kingdom!

Phillip Jensen and Greg Lee will preach, there’ll be workshops and one to one interviews.  It’s also a great time for hanging out with other people who are facing the same choices that you are.  It’s on at Katoomba during the October Long Weekend (Oct 2-5).

Would you like to come along?  Grab a brochure at church, talk to one of the staff and set aside the date in your diary.  You can register online at www.mts.com.au.  I’ve arranged accommodation for us at Blue Mountains Christian School at Blackheath.  It will mean sleeping on airbeds in guys and girls classrooms and cooking in the staff kitchen- sounds like fun!  It will cost $10 per night per person.  (This means you should register with MTS for NO accommodation.)  Make sure you let me know that you’re coming (richard@hunterbiblechurch.org).

Any questions?  Post a comment since many people will share your questions and I’ll do my best to answer them.  I’m looking forward to it- I’d love for 40 HBC people to come and for many godly men and women to serve Christ with their life, their all!

People at Hunter Bible Church love seeing people trained in Ministry and going on to part or full time Word / Gospel Ministry.  The Ministry Training Strategy (MTS) has always played a part in this.  MTS is a program where people join HBC for 2 years to do a Ministry Apprenticeship.  They get training and experience in various aspects of Christian Ministry.  In 2009, HBC (in partnership with NCS) has 5 trainees:  Geoff, Fiona, Ben, Steve and James.  They’re doing really well, and chances are you’ve benefited from their ministry already.

You can find out more about MTS by checking out mts.com.au or speaking with one of our senior staff or trainees.  The 2010 Spur conference in October is also an excellent conference to go on.

What’s more, the senior staff are keen to talk with people in our church interested in doing MTS - especially during the months of May and June.  Is that you?  Please let us know! 

Richard