Saturday, December 26, 2009

A gift to church-planters (and would-be church-planters) in Australia, who need a Push...


From their website:


What we do

The Geneva Push exists to recruit, coach and unleash church planters on an Australia that is desperately in need of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

1. Recruit

The Geneva Push provides an expanding collection of reliable online resources for men investigating church planting and Christian leadership in a uniquely Australian context. It offers free contact services to ensure Christian leaders can stay up to date with formative thinking and relevant resources.
The Geneva Push will also run regular national and state-based training and recruitment events involving the best home-grown and international speakers.
Members of The Geneva Push join a national community dedicated to seeing the Gospel go out to unchurched Australians. They have access to the web site's forums and contact list, as well as the ability to engage in 'commented' discussions on the best uses of the site's resources.

2. Coach

Men who are keen to take on the task of church planting are encouraged to apply for assessment of their suitability by The Geneva Push. This extensive process involves the input of proven, mature Christian leaders and church planters familiar with first-hand experience of working in the Australian culture. Candidates emerge with a detailed understanding of their strengths and weaknesses as well as an evaluation of their church planting goals.
Assessment planters accepted by The Geneva Push are also eligible for a wide degree of on-going support, including:
  • Access to exclusive resources including the Church-In-A-Box starter's kit, containing all of the legal and technical documents necessary for starting a congregation in Australia
  • On-going one-to-one coaching from a proven Australian church planter
  • Support to attend regular training events run by The Geneva Push and partner networks

3. Unleash

The Geneva Push works in partnership with networks and denominations across Australia to connect church planters with the regions that desperately need to hear the Gospel.
Assessment planters will have access to an online bulletin board listing opportunities to work with and receive support from a wide range of Christian denominations and networks.
Planters will also have the opportunity to make the same denominations and networks aware of their own availability and desire to work in key growth areas.
The Geneva Push is committed to raising up a new generation of church planters who aim to evangelise churches into existence across Australia. If God has inspired you to plant a church for Him, we want to help you reach your goal.

We can do more working together than in competition.


Visit The Geneva Push website to learn more. Many thanks to Pastor RJ & Pastor Dave for the heads up by becoming Geneva Push fans on Facebook. (Please right click on the links for the option to open them in a new window. Many thanks & God bless!)

Friday, December 25, 2009

Celebrating CHRIST Jesus:


Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.


-- The Apostle Paul (Philippians 2:6-11, New International Version)

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Disturbing Christmas: The Manger and the Horrors of the Cross

by C.J. Mahaney
President, Sovereign Grace Ministries
12/21/2009 10:21:00 AM


The days before Christmas can be a tiring season of preparation, planning, shopping, and wrapping. But I think as we prepare for the Christmas celebrations, dinners, travel, and gift giving, it’s equally important that we pause and prepare our souls for Christmas.

During this time of year, it may be easy to forget that the bigger purpose behind Bethlehem was Calvary. But the purpose of the manger was realized in the horrors of the cross. The purpose of his birth was his death. 

Or to put it more personally: Christmas is necessary because I am a sinner. The incarnation reminds us of our desperate condition before a holy God. 

Several years ago WORLD Magazine published a column by William H. Smith with the provocative title, “Christmas is Disturbing: Any Real Understanding of the Christmas Messages will Disturb Anyone” (Dec. 26, 1992).

In part, Smith wrote:

Many people who otherwise ignore God and the church have some religious feeling, or feel they ought to, at this time of the year. So they make their way to a church service or Christmas program. And when they go, they come away feeling vaguely warmed or at least better for having gone, but not disturbed.

Why aren’t people disturbed by Christmas? One reason is our tendency to sanitize the birth narratives. We romanticize the story of Mary and Joseph rather than deal with the painful dilemma they faced when the Lord chose Mary to be the virgin who would conceive her child by the power of the Holy Spirit. We beautify the birth scene, not coming to terms with the stench of the stable, the poverty of the parents, the hostility of Herod. Don’t miss my point. There is something truly comforting and warming about the Christmas story, but it comes from understanding the reality, not from denying it.

Most of us also have not come to terms with the baby in the manger. We sing, “Glory to the newborn King.” But do we truly recognize that the baby lying in the manger is appointed by God to be the King, to be either the Savior or Judge of all people? He is a most threatening person.

Malachi foresaw his coming and said, “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap.” As long as we can keep him in the manger, and feel the sentimental feelings we have for babies, Jesus doesn’t disturb us. But once we understand that his coming means for every one of us either salvation or condemnation, he disturbs us deeply.

What should be just as disturbing is the awful work Christ had to do to accomplish the salvation of his people. Yet his very name, Jesus, testifies to us of that work.

That baby was born so that “he who had no sin” would become “sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” The baby’s destiny from the moment of his conception was hell—hell in the place of sinners. When I look into the manger, I come away shaken as I realize again that he was born to pay the unbearable penalty for my sins.

That’s the message of Christmas: God reconciled the world to himself through Christ, man’s sin has alienated him from God, and man’s reconciliation with God is possible only through faith in Christ…Christmas is disturbing.
 
Don’t get me wrong—Christmas should be a wonderful celebration. Properly understood, the message of Christmas confronts before it comforts, it disturbs before it delights. 

The purpose of Christ’s birth was to live a sinless life, suffer as our substitute on the cross, satisfy the wrath of God, defeat death, and secure our forgiveness and salvation.

Christmas is about God the Father (the offended party) taking the initiative to send his only begotten son to offer his life as the atoning sacrifice for our sins, so that we might be forgiven for our many sins.

As Smith so fitly concludes his column:

Only those who have been profoundly disturbed to the point of deep repentance are able to receive the tidings of comfort, peace, and joy that Christmas proclaims.


Amen and Merry Christmas!


The article above was originally posted by C.J. Mahaney at the Sovereign Grace Ministries Blog and can also be enjoyed at Christianity.com

John MacArthur tackles the same issue in his article (disturbingly) entitled "The Ugliness of Christmas." (Please right-click on the links for the option to open them in a new window. May the LORD continue to open peoples' eyes to how badly we all need The Sovereign Saviour Jesus Christ in our lives. Happy Holidays & God Bless!)