Opawa Baptist Church :: a resting place

To all the worship leaders at Opawa

Hiya. A few weeks ago, as part of my sermon on 1 Corinthians 4:6-13, I talked about cross carriers. In the sermon I used three stories of people who were cross carriers. One was Geoff Bullock, who was the early face of Hillsong.

We sing his songs here at Opawa. After Geoff wrote the songs, he experienced years of burnout and failure. It led him to fresh understandings of God’s grace. (For more information you could go here to read a recent interview with Geoff Bullock: No Longer the Golden Boy.)

As a result, Geoff has re-written many of the lyrics of his songs, including;
Have faith in God
The power of your love
The heavens shall declare
Just let me say
Refresh my heart
Out of respect for Geoff, and as an expression of the importance of God’s grace, I’d like us at Opawa to use the new lyrics where ever possible. Such a change will need to start with us as worship leaders using the new lyrics. We have changed the words on the PPT file. We have also included the new lyrics here for your use.

I realise that we are really familiar with the old lyrics. I am. So I sort of like this change because in being forced out of all that is familiar, it reminds me that what I am singing is not habit, is not just words, but is important.

If you have a strong reason for using the old lyrics, by all means go ahead, or talk to me. But if our default position could be the new, I’d be glad.

Steve Taylor

Following on from the norwest festival,

, we have now mounted all the tiles on a board. This sits in our foyer, and as people walk up from Brougham Street, they catch a glimpse of colour and vitality, a visual expression of what it means for us at Opawa to be "blown by the wind of the Spirit." (Photo thanks to "snappy" Jas)

spring clean

Saturday was Spring Clean Day at Opawa. 50 people gathered in 4 teams:
: re-painting youth centre (heaps of photos here)
: various jobs around the building
: walking the streets picking up rubbish
: going into various local homes to paint and tidy.
It was an invitation to practically share the love of Jesus. Here is a powerpoint (of 34 images) if you are interested (880K): Download file

another opawa blogger

Another Opawa blogger here, with some great photos of the recent Opawa Youth Group day trip to Akaroa.

God at work

A neat testimony of God at work among our young people on Wednesday night.

The highlight of the night for me, was definately seeing Chloe, Jaimee & Sasha go forward at the alter call and seeing them huddle together, worshipping God! Was so cool. It gave me such a warm feeling. Young Chloe (13) went forward and decided to follow JC. She has been going to Adelle & Aliesha's DTC for a wee while now. When I saw her later (after she had talked with a Counsellor) she was glowing and all excited. She said she used to feel like there was a hole in her heart and now she feels all warm.

For more.

questioning new members

As a church, we've welcomed in 19 new members so far this year. What's more, we have 9 others who have been through a new members information time and are thinking and praying about this step. 19 + 9 is quite a lot of people to connect with.

As we were welcoming the Jaegar's on Sunday morning I thought;
It would be nice to have an interview with new members. A few (standard) questions that we ask them. Their answers could then be printed in the newsletter and put up on the church website. Then all the congregation would have a few more connection points.

So, what "getting to know you questions" would you like to ask a new church member? Leave your "questions" in the comments section.

Opawa youth

Photos and description of a recent Wednesday night youth evening here and here.

Another Opawa blogger

Jasmine is blogging here. She's got a really honest testimony of her journey with God and how being at Opawa has helped, linked in with the start of the Journey's series at Digestion on Sunday evenings. And she's got a job!

Geoff Bullock

Wanting to read more about Geoff Bullock, or ponder on his re-writing of song lyrics? Go here.

journeys

Journeys of discovery, exploring relationships with ourselves, with each other, with God, with creation. All done with creativity and application to contemporary culture. Starts Sunday 7pm, September 3.

Using on-line labyrinth here.

mission cards at espresso

What is church? At Opawa we have been exploring the idea that church exists to develop community, extend Jesus love and grow in Christian life. This understanding has laid the groundwork for a multi-congregational model and allowed the planting of Espresso, a Tuesday evening congregation.

Espresso is experimenting with the mission part, with extending Jesus love, in the following way. Once a month a person describes their work. This is followed by the playing of 3 cards;
Creator card
Redeeemer card
Sustainer card.

Each card offers a Scripture and some questions based on understanding God as Creator; Redeemer; Sustainer. Questions like; What in this person’s work takes responsibility for God’s creation? What in this person’s work enhances life to the full? What in this work breathes God’s peace and forgiveness?

Those gathered answer the cards. In so doing, they provide feedback, offering insights into how a person's work is an extension of Jesus love.

The evening then concludes with a storytelling time. The story of a saint is shared, ideally a saint that has some linkage with the person's work.

So on Tuesday a scientist working in the micro-biology field shared and the evening ended with the story of St.Francis of Assissi. For a positive comment, see here.