Finding Refreshment

The semester is quickly wrapping up for the year. We are currently working out who the student leaders will be for next year and what next year might look like for the student ministry. There are still quite a few unknowns, particularly regarding if there will be anyone to replace my position.

Anyway, more on that in the unfolding months. This month I want to share a bit about my other work within my local church at The Branch.

Flooding at the Cataract Gorge

Recently I had 2 weeks away from my normal routines, one week making the most of the unpredictable weather in Launceston and the next, in Sydney with the rest of The Branch staff at the FIEC conference.

I did a few short local walks, caught up with a few friends, and also did something a bit different by joining a Launceston Symphony Orchestra rehearsal. I got pulled in as the ensemble meets at The Branch and occasionally I'm there at the same time. Ever since they heard I play the clarinet they have been begging me to join them. I've never played with stringed instruments before, so that was a new experience. My brain was a bit fried afterwards though, as most of the music they gave me required me to transpose from A clarinet to Bb. This is only a small step down in pitch, but transposing when the resulting key is in B Major (5 sharps), that's not fun!

Steve Young being tnterview at FIEC Conference

The FIEC National Conference was extremely edifying. The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches is the network that The Branch is part of. It was a joy to hear from Gary Miller from 1 Thessalonians — an encouraging and practical book for ministry. It was also a delight to hear about the growing network around the country and the vision put forward to work with other churches in planting new ones.

There were also other relevant workshops on understanding transgenderism, being Christian after Christendom, complementarian ministry principles, and developing team leaders. Many of these relate to continued discussions we've had as staff afterwards in our meetings, as we think about implementing things we have learned with our church.

Overall, it was an encouraging and refreshing time after a few very discouraging weeks — just what I needed. It was good to just relax and let God's word sweep over me. A reminder of why attending these kinds of things is important. If you haven't attended a conference in a while, maybe you might like to go along to Grace & Truth in Launceston next week (Oct 3–5).

Last year, I mentioned I was writing some Growth Group studies for our church. These have now been used by our congregation and have received some really good feedback! People enjoyed and were challenged to think about God's bigger purpose for the church and why we want to be a loving community, calling people to Jesus. Steve Young and I also did a series of three sermons relating to our theological vision to go alongside these studies.

Church Center App

Another project I have slowly been working on is moving our whole church onto a new church management system. Like other churches in Australia, we have been using Elvanto which has had many challenges in using, since being bought out by a US company. We have now made the switch to Planning Center, which our people are engaging with and are enjoying having an easy way to stay up-to-date with church life. Through this, it's been good to still make use of my techy know-how to bless our church in this way and hopefully decrease administration tasks when I leave.

In continuing to develop some of my preaching skills, ready for Moore College next year. I've been given the opportunity to preach through a whole book of the Bible! I'm currently wrestling with the lesser-known minor prophet, Nahum. A very confronting prophecy that continues the story of Jonah, where God declares to Nineveh, "I am against you!" (Nah. 2:13). That might pique some interest, but I'll stop there so I don't spoil it for those reading from my home church. This will be my first time preparing a sermon within a week and I'm a little nervous about how the second week might turn out, given some of the themes that are presented.

As was mentioned at our church AGM recently, currently The Branch is going through a significant staff change. With a new senior pastor at the start of this year and a search for a new assistant pastor to replace Steve Nicholson as he retires very soon. It has been a joy working alongside these men and learning much from their lives, experiences, and wisdom. Please pray for The Branch during this time, that she would continue looking to Christ as the head of the church and the vision of making mature disciples would go on.