Opawa Baptist Church :: a resting place

Another Opawa blogger

Gary Fox has started blogging, so I've added him to the Opawa bloggers sidebar. He's got some great photos of last Sunday evenings service.

And while your surfing, check out the passion of Deb's post about her Opawa Boys Brigade Boys.

warmth

It's a bit cold at the moment and Opawa is a difficult church to heat. In a random conversation (one of these free-wheeling ones that shoots the breeze but can hit "gold") one of the church staff suggested a wood burner. Imagine this at the front of the church?

butterfly and new life sermon questions

New life takes care
The church theme for the year is "life to the full" and the sermon was about "new life"? What words describe "new life"? What colours describe "new life"?

The sermon talked about the dangers of the wrong care and the sense of struggle as necessary for growth. What struggles have you had and how have they helped promote new life in you?

New life needs to fly
Theological question (feel free to skip this but Steve pondered this in the middle of his sermon on Sunday): Is the point of baptism really to fly? Jesus got baptized just before ministry, at around age 30 ... So should we be baptising people later in their lives? But does baptism then become a ministry focus rather than a salvation focus?

New life adds colour
What ways have you seen Christians add colour to their world? What ways have you seen Christians not add colour to their world? What do you learn from this?

written for church newsletter

I write on Friday and the events of the last hours in London have left us shocked and numbed. Once again our world is rocked by a terrible act of violence. It can be hard to know what to say and how to pray.

At such times, when I am looking for words to express my feelings, I turn to the Psalms. There we find prayers for all of life. There are prayers for happy days, when life is good and makes sense and we feel on top of our game (like Psalm 1 or 8 or 133). There are prayers for surprising days, when God turns up in totally unexpected days (like Psalm 40 or 93).

And there are prayers for sad days. At such times, Psalms like 13 or 137 allow us to be honest with God and ourselves, to voice our feelings of hurt, suffering, death and loss. To express our longing for justice and peace.

I am sure your prayers are joining mine. Prayers for peace, justice, mercy and hope for the world which God loves.

feel free to comment

Getting mission into the DNA of the church … a conversation about mission and church. Wednesday, July 13th 6-9pm, Opawa Baptist Church. I am one of the key speakers, along with other Baptist pastors including Lindsay Jones, Fraser Campbell, Chris Chamberlain.

As part of the evening, I have been asked to address the question: What is happening at Opawa? Why?

Here at Opawa in the last few years we have seen increases in service attendances, new people, baptisms, membership, offerings. Hence the question from other Baptist pastors: What is happening at Opawa? Why?

I am not sure I alone can answer such a question, so I have asked various people around the church. If you’d like to input, comment below, email me or drop your comments in the church office by Tuesday (12th), 12 noon.

hat tip

I want to thank the youth and the church from opawa for making me feel welcome into there church. keep it up your doing a good job .
when i first came to christchurch i really wanted to get involve with a really great youth group and church. i was really scared at first i didnt no anyone i went to a evening service which is really good . i think i overcome a big step in growning up and letting go my friends from blenheim and leaving my family. but my friends from OBY make me not feel homesick. i can feel god working in peoples lives in the church so that is so cool.

Another Opawa blogger has just started.