The Massive youth have headed off to Foxton for the weekend for their annual camp. Let’s be lifting them up in prayer for safety, fun, but more than anything that they would encounter the Lord powerfully. They’re up there until Monday!
Imagine that you’re inserted into somebody else’s life for a day. You get to do what they do, feel what they feel, love what they love and see things the way they do. I imagine it would be quite an unnerving experience because there would be so much that just wouldn’t make sense. Why do they love that thing so much? Why are they so nervous about that situation? After all, it’s never bothered you before.
One of the reasons I think it would be so confusing is that it would be hard to make sense of what’s going on for them now when you don’t understand what’s gone before. We are all the products of our history.
If this is true on a micro scale, it’s also true at the macro. If you don’t know what’s happened in the life of an individual, it’s hard to understand their current reality. In the same way, if you don’t have an understanding of the origins of humanity, it’s hard to make sense of our collective present reality. We live in a world where we’re trying to make sense of what’s going on. We’re grappling with big issues that affect real people like assisted dying, climate change and gender identity. And it’s even more difficult to talk about these things when we don’t know where we all came from in the beginning.
Last year we began a set of miniseries called ‘Pillars’ where we’re building a framework of the things Christians have always believed. We’ve looked at Scripture, at Trinity, and in two weeks, we’re beginning a series called Origins about creation, humanity and the fall.
If I’m honest, it’s Origins that really started the ball rolling on Pillars itself. Why does it matter that God created the world? What does it mean to be made in the image of God? What really changed in Genesis 3? Why does any of this matter now?
These questions are critical bits of timber in the framework of our faith. They influence every aspect of our lives and yet we rarely talk about them. Our hope and prayer is that as we get the basics in place, we’ll have a far richer understanding of how to follow Jesus in this cultural context and be more prepared to grapple with some of our world’s most pressing questions.
I’m so looking forward to this series. Please pray for us as we prepare and get stuck in when it starts on 16 October.
Much love,
Simon
This post is part of the Senior Pastor’s weekly blog. Go to the blog feed >>
We are in the very beginning stages of planning what our services around Christmas will look like this year. If you love Christmas and think you’d like to be involved in planning what we do this year, please get in touch and Jenny will make sure you’re invited to the first planning meeting.
There are a group of 20 year 6-8s who have gone away to iCamp this weekend. Today (Sunday) is their last day of camp but let’s be praying that these young people would encounter Jesus while they’re away and that the effects would last well beyond today.
Our lives seem to be filled with many things. We have things we’d love to do, problems we’d love to solve, challenges we’d love to overcome. We find these things across our physical, spiritual, mental, relational, educational and vocational worlds. Where do you even start?
I’m reading a book at the moment that I’m finding really interesting and helpful. It’s called The One Thing by Gary Keller. He challenges people to ask one question, “What is the one thing that you can do which by so doing, everything else becomes easier or unnecessary.” I’ve found it such a clarifying question in working out what to prioritise.
It reminds me of the well-known account of Mary and Martha. Martha is worried about many things that needed to be done while her sister was just sitting at the feet of Jesus listening.
Notice that Martha was busy with the things that needed to be done. There is no suggestion that her efforts were meaningless. She was trying to be a great host for the guests in her home. But Jesus gently calls her out.
“Martha, Martha… you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed - or indeed only one.” Luke 10:41
Worried and upset about many things sounds a lot like me a lot of the time. I wonder if you can relate. And yet Jesus calls Martha away from the many things to the one thing. To sit at His feet and listen.
The more I think about my one thing, the more I realise how many times, across all areas of my life, it really comes down to the same thing. Being in the presence of Jesus. Making sure that I have time to sit at His feet and talk to Him, worship Him and listen to Him in His word.
As a church, we’re going to be making more time for encountering Jesus together whether in corporate prayer, worship nights or in our services and Life Groups. It’s something we’re exploring with our staff team too. But it can also be something you look to do on your own or with 1 or 2 others. Create space to “sit at the feet of Jesus” in worship and adoration. I wonder how many other things will be easier or unnecessary if we prioritise this one thing.
Much love,
Simon
This post is part of the Senior Pastor’s weekly blog. Go to the blog feed >>
Over the weeks of Monday 3rd October - Saturday 15th October, we are having two dedicated serve weeks. We want to meet felt needs and provide help that is needed locally. We would love to help in a way that reveals the love of God and brings renewal. This is just a start! We hope that these two weeks we do together, enable you to find opportunities to meet felt needs in your own communities that you live and work in.
There are a range of opportunities so sign up to one that works for you! You are more than welcome to sign up to more than one, you just need to register separately for each one. If you sign up to one and can no longer make it, email night@thestreet.org.nz and we can find someone to switch out for you :-)
To register head to The Church Center Registration page
I’ve been reflecting on Galatians 5 and 6 this week. It fits really nicely with our series in Micah where he’s calling Israel back to the Mosaic covenant - back to loving God and loving people.
Paul is challenging the people to walk in freedom from the Mosaic law and to simply trust in Christ. What’s interesting is that while the law was left behind, God’s purpose remained. Paul told them not to use their freedom to serve themselves but rather to serve one another humbly in love (Gal 6:13). What changed in Jesus is not the call to love others but the empowerment to actually live it out.
In pursuit of these goals, Paul instructed them to walk by the Spirit (5:16), be led by the Spirit (5:18) and to sow to please the Spirit. It was to be a participative not passive process. As we do these things, we open ourselves up to God producing fruit in our lives that leads to us being people who truly love and serve others.
But what does it mean to “sow” to please the Spirit? If you think about seeds, they look small and insignificant. They are nothing like the crops or flowers you want to end up with. Nevertheless, you sow something into the ground, cover it up and a hidden process transforms the seed.
I wonder if there is a parallel here for us. The call to love and serve others is hard because we’re not talking about one off kind gestures. This is a posture for our whole lives. But God is not calling us to create the finished product - that’s his job. Our job is to participate with him by sowing seeds.
Sowing seeds then must be taking ownership of the things that are in our control. It’s creating habits of daily devotion in Scripture, prayer and worship. It’s prioritising gathering with the church. It’s looking for ways to faithfully serve those around you or giving generously to those in need. In fact, it’s any decision you make that prioritises others over yourself. These things can seem small but that’s ok, they’re just seeds. But it’s in these small seeds that God is in hidden work, transforming you into a fruitful person who is consistently growing in love for others.
So why not use these question as a lens through which to see the decisions you have to make today. With what I am about to do, am I seeking to please the Spirit or myself? Am I deciding what’s best for me or others?
Much love,
Simon
This post is part of the Senior Pastor’s weekly blog. Go to the blog feed >>
The Street Church has been approached by the Wellington Christian Education Project regarding using the Life Centre for a Christian School in the CBD.
We have come to a place as Elders and leaders where we believe this could be something the Lord is calling us into. The next step for us is to invite feedback from the wider church on this question. Please be assured that our desire to enter consultation is genuine, and any commitment is contingent on this process. To support this process, we have put together a document outlining the nature of the commitment and providing answers to questions we expect you to have. You can read it here.
If you are part of our church community, then please take some time to prayerfully consider this proposal and then send comments and questions to questions@thestreet.org.nz. The deadline for this is 25 September.
There are more locations to The Street than just East and it’s great to celebrate what’s happening with our wider church family!
Last weekend was Night Camp - our Night location which is mainly students and young adults that meet at Mt Vic, headed away for the weekend. Anna says, "We are celebrating such a great time at camp! The words that come to mind to sum up the weekend are surrender & re-surrender, friendship, vulnerability before the Lord, perspective shift and rest!"
Also, congratulations to Jerram and Gabby (Lead Pastors of City) who welcomed a new baby girl into their family last weekend. Madeline Ruth Watts was born Friday 2 September at 11.34pm
If you are on our database you should have received the church update by email last week. Please have a look at it if you haven’t already and if you have any questions or feedback you have until 25th September to provide this. You can email your feedback to questions@thestreet.org.nz
Merrie, our CAP Debt Centre Manager is going to be putting on a Christmas BBQ later in the year for all of our centre’s CAP clients. Christmas is such a tough time when you don’t have much money and so we want to put on an event that will be a real highlight for our clients. If you would like to help with that in some way - planning, cooking, serving on the day, cleaning up afterwards, giving rides to clients, something else - please email merrie.reddington@thestreet.org.nz
We are so blessed that so many of you serve in a volunteer role to make our Sunday services happen. We currently have an urgent need on our Media team. This role involves arriving at 8.30am and setting up the media on the computer, and then putting it up on the screens throughout the service. Full training will be provided! If you can use a computer you’ll be able to do this. We ideally need to add another 2 people to this team. Please let us know if this is something you think you might be able to do. Thanks!
Our current sermon series in the book of Micah has started. Micah is one of the Old Testament minor prophets.
Micah brings a series of indictments about the consequences for Israel and Judah about the lack of godly leadership, a lack of care for others, and a general abandonment of values (idolatry) and pursuit of selfishness instead of righteousness. We can identify with this today. God, in His mercy, does not leave them, or us, in our sinfulness, but makes promises of hope and salvation for all who have ears to hear. For people ‘helpless’ in their sin and wickedness, he promises a Shepherd to rescue and protect and guide. For a society led astray into pursuit of false idols and oppression of the poor, he promises judgement and Peace.
This is the last opportunity to read Micah Chapters 6 & 7 ahead of Sunday’s sermon.
Daniel Silvester spoke a few weeks ago on Habakuk 3. He got us thinking and talking about the anchor points where God had shown His faithfulness in our lives, that we can look back to in order to help us keep going. He also encouraged us to get our creative juices flowing and write a poem/song/rap like Habakuk wrote a poem. If you did that, we’d love you to share it with the church - please let us know. If you haven’t done it, it’s not too late. You could set aside some time this week to reflect on the moments of his faithfulness and provision and to record it in a creative way.
Last week I sat at the piano in our house and sang I Belong to Jesus by Brooke Ligertwood. I’d heard it a few times but this time I was actually paying attention to the words.
“On the day I chose to trust in Him,
When I turned from death to life.
He was waiting with a robe and ring
And now I can testify, I belong…”
It’s a powerful allusion to the prodigal son and all of a sudden I’m struggling to get the words out and there are tears on my cheeks. It’s happening again as I write this. I’m not good on the piano and I don’t have the best voice. But in the simplicity of this song in my living room, I encountered Jesus.
When we think about personal disciplines, we default to reading the Bible and prayer. They’re Christianity’s answer to salt and pepper; nobody ever really questions their priority. Worship is often relegated to singing songs in church on Sunday or talked about as the way we do our whole lives. But as I find myself encountering the Lord in a place of private adoration, I wonder if there’s a case to be made for promoting it alongside Scripture and prayer as vital spiritual habits.
Last year I read Desiring the Kingdom by James K. A. Smith and I’d highly recommend it. His premise is that we are a people formed not primarily by information but by what we love. Think about a shopping mall. Stores don’t hand out catalogues of information about products. Rather they show aspirational photos of sleek products or models wearing the clothes. It appeals to desire and has a deeper and more formational impact. We are all worshippers shaped by what we love.
As churches, we’ve tried to counter this by assuming that if we just knew enough about the Bible, we’ll be fine and I’m not sure it’s true. I’m a huge advocate for Scripture but I’m also a huge advocate for worship. You see, it’s in worship that what we love is re-oriented towards the one truly worthy of adoration. Worship recalibrates what we love and therefore changes us.
So can I encourage you to consider how and when you can make time to worship. I love to worship on my morning prayer walks or listen to worship music in our home. But it doesn’t have to be musical. Worship can simply be something we do with our words in prayer. Maybe you want to take a great passage of Scripture like Colossians 1:15-20 or Revelation 1:12-16 and read one every day until you know it by heart. You’ll be amazed at how much something like that gets in your head and heart in everyday life such that any moment can become a moment of encounter.
Let’s be a people who create the space for God to shape what we love.
Much love,
Simon
This post is part of the Senior Pastor’s weekly blog. Go to the blog feed >>
Friend and mentor Kevin Harney recently asked me about listening to God. I had to be honest and say that I’m not sure I hear God like I used to. I wondered whether this was because of sin or a stubbornness in my response. However, I came to see that the primary reason was because I wasn’t making time to listen.
I like to maximise every moment. I was praying and reading Scripture in the morning but not pausing to listen. I listen to a news podcast on my ride to work. I listen to audiobooks while I’m running. I love music in the car. I review preachers while I’m cooking dinner. The question is, how can I ever hear God if my life is only ever filled with noise?
It’s led me to experiment with sitting for 10 minutes at the start of my day in silence. I set the timer on my watch and pray a simple prayer like, “Holy Spirit come.” Some days it feels like a fight to keep my brain in check. But there are also moments when God seems to bring something to mind.
I’ve also tried driving in silence and running without an audiobook. In fact, it was as I was running in silence that my mind began to wander and I planned this blog post. I have learned that the rhythm of running in silence gives my mind the freedom to wander and seems to create space where God can speak.
It’s important too for this mission we’re on. Silence is a place where God can remind me of something I haven’t done. God can bring a person or situation to mind that he wants me to pray about. He can confront an area of sin where he desires repentance. He can remind me of his great love for me and for the whole world.
I recently heard a talk on King David where the speaker suggested that he was formed in a place of silence, shepherding sheep in the wilderness. Moses too spent 40 years with little more sound than the bleating of sheep. Even Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness and often withdrew to lonely places. Could it be that God prepares his people not so much in the noise and busyness but in silence and solitude.
How aware are you of the nudges and whispers of God? Where and when can you make space to hear Him more clearly?
Much love,
Simon
This post is part of the Senior Pastor’s weekly blog. Go to the blog feed >>
Did you know that we produce questions for Life Groups to use that go alongside every sermon series? Even if you’re not using them in your life group, you may still find them helpful to engage with the scripture yourself as we journey through a series. You can find them on our website at www.thestreet.org.nz/media. Click on the relevant series and you’ll see a button called “Life Group notes” - enjoy!
If you missed the CAP update in our service you can check it out here. If you would like to find more about helping with any of the things Merrie mentioned please email us and we can connect you with Merrie.
Senior Pastors are funny creatures. They can’t walk into an auditorium without moving a few chairs. And they’re incapable of meeting new people on a Sunday without saying, “there’s usually more people than this.”
I jest but there’s some truth behind this. It comes back to the way churches have idolised large gatherings as a sign of a good church. We equate the value of a pastor with the size of their building. And perhaps most damagingly of all, we have mistaken the size of a gathering as a measure of spiritual health. It just isn’t true.
It will come as no surprise that there are fewer people gathering on Sundays across The Street than there used to be. The causes include people moving away from Wellington, people staying away for health reasons and people who have broken out of the habit of gathering or drifted away all together. It’s alleviated in some part by the strength of our Life Groups and it’s important that all of us play a part in encouraging those who’ve drifted to return.
But the reality is that our services tend to be smaller and more stripped back than they used to be. Night have even been working on alternating between large Sunday gatherings and services in homes. I know some of us are still grieving the way we used to gather in large numbers (unless you were trying to park!) and you’re desperate for us to build something back up like The Street in 2019.
Let's celebrate and remember fondly what has gone before, but can I gently give you three reasons why the future looks different for us:
We can’t go back
Covid has been a disruption that has affected just about every area of life in our nation. The church is a body of people, not a robot. As people, we have been affected by Covid and trying to simply “go back to what was” would be like an office forbidding people to work from home. Times have changed.
We don’t want to go back
Someone said to me recently that Covid was a stress-test on discipleship. We were found wanting. We have to become a church of resilient disciples who are able to stand, grow and multiply even in adverse circumstances, and deep community is needed to help that happen.
We don’t need to go back
We have a vision to see 1% of Wellington become baptised followers of Jesus. We can make the mistake of thinking this would be easier if we had lots and lots of people. I love the story of Gideon (Judges 6-7) and how when faced with a vast army beyond counting, God whittled his army of 32,000 (which was clearly too small already) down to 300. God won the victory easily with 300 and it is this victory that is used as a picture of how God would one day send a baby to defeat sin and death - Jesus! He is the only one who can save so many people and build us up into a movement of resilient multiplying disciples.
Can I invite you on the journey? Not back to what we loved before but onwards and upwards into what God knows is needed now.
Much love,
Simon
This post is part of the Senior Pastor’s weekly blog. Go to the blog feed >>
Our Senior Pastors Simon & Jenny, and Jerram (Lead Pastor of our City location) provide an update to the whole church around our local services.
In the video, we promised you an FAQs document, which hopefully answers some of the questions you may have. Click here to view that. If there are other questions that come to mind unanswered in the document, please send them through to city@thestreet.org.nz or get in touch with your Lead Pastor.