Join us for one hour long, family friendly Christmas services each Sunday from 27 Nov through 18 Dec.
C A R O L S • F O O D • G A M E S
10am at 56 Hobart St, Miramar
C A R O L S • F O O D • G A M E S
10am at 56 Hobart St, Miramar
Christmas is rapidly approaching and this year, rather than one special production service, we are spreading the joy and fun of Christmas across 4 weeks. Watch this space for more information coming next week, including fliers for you to invite your friends, family, neighbours and colleagues to join in this special build up to Christmas.
It’s only 3 weeks until the first service on 27th November, and each service (27 Nov, 4 Dec, 11 Dec, 18 Dec) will be 1 hour long with games, carols, food and lots of Christmas cheer! But we need your help to pull it off!
If you are available to help with any of the following please get in touch:
Preparing props to decorate the church: Wrapping boxes and other crafty things (In the lead up to 27 November)
Setting up the decorations before the service on each of those Sundays (8.45am each week)
Preparing food - cooking Christmas ham, baking brownies or fruit mince pies, barbecuing sausages
General help with things we haven’t thought of yet!
If you can help with any of these things, please email us as soon as you can so we can get cracking!
You may remember Merrie talking in her interview a few weeks ago about a Christmas BBQ for all of our CAP Debt Centre clients that she is organising as a way of celebrating them and all the hard work they have put in this year. She is looking for people to help with things like making a salad/dessert, helping with games, cooking on the bbq, helping with dishes etc. Not all things involve being there on the day, and we can reimburse for ingredients. The BBQ is happening during the day on Saturday 10th December. If you can help please fill in the following Google form.
Holly and Shawn Barabash are in Wellington over Christmas and would love to host anyone else who is here without family for Christmas Day. So if you were wondering what to do for Christmas Day get in touch with Holly on holly.barabash@gmail.com
As you may have seen in the last couple of newsletters; Strathmore Park Community Centre have been having major renovations done this year and are now fundraising to be able to kit the new centre out with nice new furniture and a new sound system. They have been so generous towards us allowing us to run Community Dinner there for free and so we’d love to support them in this. We’ll be making a donation on behalf of The Street - East, but if you would like to make a donation here is the link https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/spcc-transformation#!
Many of you would know Caitlin Ormiston, and you may also know that she is here in NZ to work for an organisation called Tertiary Students Christian Fellowship. They are currently looking for an experienced PA to work alongside their National Director, commencing in early 2023. For more information and an informal conversation about the role please contact Ben via email: benc@tscf.org.nz .
I had the privilege this week of meeting with an older friend whose garden overlooks Scorching Bay - one of the perks of being a pastor in the eastern suburbs!
As we talked a little about what Jesus is teaching us at the moment, and as I looked over the turquoise water, I was reminded of a favourite passage of mine:
“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” - Ephesians 3:17b-19
What a prayer! Don’t you wish you could pray prayers like Paul? Fortunately, we can borrow such incredible words in prayer which is what I have been doing for you today.
What I love in particular about these verses is Paul’s description of God’s love. He prays that we would grasp the love of God before acknowledging that it has dimensions that cannot fully be grasped. He then prays that we’d know a love that cannot be fully known. It makes sense, then, that Paul would pray for power because grasping and knowing such love is beyond us.
As I looked at the ocean, I realised that were I to jump in, I would be completely immersed by it. I wouldn’t fully know the expanse of water but I would know something of it. I would grasp it in some way while also realising just how much greater these waters are than me. It’s like having some words to describe God’s love and yet never finding the words to express it in full.
The love of God answers the deepest longing of my soul. It tells me that I am significant, that I belong and that I am secure. I realise that if I don’t know this truly, I will go searching for it in all the wrong places. My encouragement to you today is to let the words of these verses marinate in your heart and mind. To immerse yourself like diving into the ocean. Like Paul I pray that you would have the power to grasp the ingraspable and there to find your soul truly satisfied in Him.
Much love,
Simon
This post is part of the Senior Pastor’s weekly blog. Go to the blog feed >>
Anna Field talks to Nick and Sarah about how things are going with The Way.
Nick and Sarah Field who were Senior Pastors of The Street for 25 years left 18 months ago to start a missional home church movement called The Way. Check out this update from them if you didn’t see it in the service and keep praying for them. The Way update .
Their website is www.theway.co.nz
Kahurangi School have kindly allowed us to hold community dinner there this year while Strathmore Community Centre is being renovated. Kahurangi are starting their own building work in November so we have been looking for another temporary venue. Praise God that Miramar Community Centre have agreed to us holding the dinner there until the start of Feb! Thanks for your prayers. Our first week in Miramar Community Centre will be Wednesday 16th November.
I wonder how you’re going. I know a number of people and families where there are significant challenges going on. And even if you’re doing well right now, all of us will face situations where we don’t have the wisdom or strength to take the next step.
As I’ve contemplated the things I’m struggling with right now, I’ve found a promise to claim in Paul’s experience.
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. - 2 Corinthians 12:8-10.
Paul’s statement here is another example of how Jesus takes things that we’re familiar with and turns them on their head. In our world, we boast about progress, about power, about self-sufficiency. We see weakness as something to be avoided at all costs. Yet Paul learned to see it as something to celebrate.
I think we get the fact that we want God to help us but we’re really just after a top-up. “God, I haven’t quite got what’s needed here but if you could just top me up with a little power, that would be great.”
But in this situation, weakness is not celebrated. This can’t therefore be what Paul means.
Paul’s understanding is richer and deeper than that. He could boast about weakness because he understood that God’s power is made perfect in weakness. Perfect means made complete. When we contribute nothing, God is able to contribute everything. He does this because the currency by which God operates is grace - he does everything in our lives as a free gift.
We learn therefore that weakness is not a barrier to God’s work in and through our lives. Rather weakness is a catalyst for power. So when you face weakness, maybe you’d like to turn it into the sort of prayer I’ve been praying this week.
“God thank you for my inability in this situation because I know you’re going to work powerfully. I invite your work in my life again today as a gift of your grace. Amen.”
Much love,
Simon
This post is part of the Senior Pastor’s weekly blog. Go to the blog feed >>
The CAP Hampers this year will be almost the same as last year
$50 voucher for The Warehouse
Handwritten Card
Treat Box to the value of $50 - please wrap each item
Boxes will be available at your local service or the church office. The idea is to put in it some 'goodies' that you wouldn't ordinarily buy, to give to a client for Christmas. Wrap each item individually, and place it in the box along with the card and voucher.
The changes this year are that we won't be wrapping the outside of the box, just the presents inside. Also, where possible we will have the boxes coded so you have a better idea of what to provide. This will be as follows: SM - single male, SF -single female, C - Couple, F- family. There will be some G (Generic) as we need a few non-specific.
THE TREAT BOX
The idea is to spark some joy for the client with a few luxury items. Who doesn't like to receive a wrapped parcel, and have no idea what is inside? This is not supposed to be an Emergency Food Parcel, but something memorable and encouraging.
Points to note:
No alcohol, although other beverages are fine.
No money
Nothing perishable.
IMPORTANT DATES:
Last 2 weeks of October: Empty boxes available for collection
Last 2 weeks of November: Filled boxes to be returned to your location.
Collect and return boxes to your location or the Life Centre on Mondays, Tuesdays or Thursdays between 9 am to 4 pm.
We hope you have fun putting this together, and we value the prayers that you offer up for the client you are blessing.
Any queries, please get in touch.
Merrie Reddington
merrie.reddington@capnz.org
The CAP Hampers this year will be almost the same as last year
$50 voucher for The Warehouse
Handwritten Card
Treat Box to the value of $50 - please wrap each item
Boxes will be available at your local service or the church office. The idea is to put in it some 'goodies' that you wouldn't ordinarily buy, to give to a client for Christmas. Wrap each item individually, and place it in the box along with the card and voucher.
The changes this year are that we won't be wrapping the outside of the box, just the presents inside. Also, where possible we will have the boxes coded so you have a better idea of what to provide. This will be as follows: SM - single male, SF -single female, C - Couple, F- family. There will be some G (Generic) as we need a few non-specific.
THE TREAT BOX
The idea is to spark some joy for the client with a few luxury items. Who doesn't like to receive a wrapped parcel, and have no idea what is inside? This is not supposed to be an Emergency Food Parcel, but something memorable and encouraging.
Points to note:
No alcohol, although other beverages are fine.
No money
Nothing perishable.
IMPORTANT DATES:
Last 2 weeks of October: Empty boxes available for collection
Last 2 weeks of November: Filled boxes to be returned to your location.
Collect and return boxes to your location or the Life Centre on Mondays, Tuesdays or Thursdays between 9 am to 4 pm.
We hope you have fun putting this together, and we value the prayers that you offer up for the client you are blessing.
Any queries, please get in touch.
Merrie Reddington
merrie.reddington@capnz.org
One of my heroes is Eliud Kipchoge. On 13 October last year, he ran a marathon in under 2 hours. It’s ridiculous. Imagine running 100 metres in 17 seconds and then repeating it 421 times. He’d attempted the same feat before around a remote racing circuit in Italy with shallow corners so he didn’t have to slow down. His second attempt was on a course with slower corners. This time, however, it was in central Vienna and packed with cheering crowds. I wonder how many seconds he saved by being spurred on by others.
Barnabas is one of the Bible’s great encouragers (his name even means “Son of Encouragement”). He arrived in Antioch to encourage the church to stay true to the faith (Acts 11:24) and while he was there a great number came to faith and large numbers were equipped. I wonder how much of this growth came because of an environment of encouragement?
As we move on through Acts, encouragement becomes so important that the apostles kept visiting churches that had been established to strengthen and encourage. It gets mentioned again and again and is again associated with a church strong in the faith and growing in numbers (Acts 16:5).
Encouragers are critical to healthy churches. They’re like the crowds that come alongside tiring runners and spur them on to take the next step.
I realise that encouragement is a spiritual gift (Romans 12:8) but I don’t think that lets the rest of us off. I don’t get to be passive simply because it’s not my gift. Rather, we’re to look to those who are great encouragers and learn from them. Imagine the environment we’d create in our church if each of us made time to encourage one person every day. I bet that’s the sort of church my friends would want to be a part of. Maybe that’s why encouragement and growth come together.
So today my encouragement to you is simply this… Who can you encourage today?
Much love,
Simon
This post is part of the Senior Pastor’s weekly blog. Go to the blog feed >>
We are grateful to the Methodist Church for letting us use the Miramar Uniting building over the past two years. This has always been on a year-by-year basis and we continually trust God to provide.
For next year, we have been informed that they are negotiating with a new user. They are keen for other users to continue in the building and so if their use is not for Sundays, we may be able to stay on. They have assured us that The Street has been included in their discussions.
We are so grateful for how God has provided up until now and we know He’ll continue. Let’s all be praying about this and please let us know if God puts something on your heart.
We run a free community dinner every Wednesday night in Strathmore. Our usual venue is Strathmore Community Centre but while they have been closed for renovations we have been using Kahurangi School hall. Kahurangi are going to be starting their own building work in November and so we need to find another venue to use for our dinners until the Community Centre reopens next year. Please pray with us that the Lord would provide somewhere that’s super accessible for the people who bus or walk from Strathmore to the dinner.
We are now underway with our new mini-series which is part of our “Pillars” series’. This mini-series is called “Origins”. Why is there something instead of nothing? Who am I? Why am I here? Why are things the way they are in the world? We don’t often take time to consider the bigger questions in life and yet how we answer them makes a big difference in how we see the world and how we live. In this series, we head back to the very beginning to explore the unique way in which Christianity answers these questions. Simon will be kicking it off in Genesis 1 - we hope you can make it!
I had a friend called Kev. His brothers were big and tall and Kev was pretty short. But whenever someone reminded him of his lack of height, he’d invariably reply, “It’s not the cards you’re dealt, it’s the way you play ‘em.”
One of my favourite Bible characters is Barnabas. He was such an encourager and a prominent leader. When he was in Antioch, large numbers of people came to faith and many were taught (Acts 11:22-26).
Then you get a character like Stephen. He was chosen to be in charge of waiting on tables and making sure food was distributed fairly while the apostles focused on prayer and the ministry of the word (Acts 6:4).
The question is, who had the more important role? Who was dealt the ‘best hand’ in terms of the gifts God had given them? In many people’s minds, I think someone like Barnabas is seen as more important than Stephen.
But take a closer look and you will find a profound similarity. Both men are described as being full of the Spirit and faith (Acts 6:5; 11:24). In fact, this was the reason Stephen was chosen even though his role was really practical. It reminds me that what is most important is not the role we play but whether we play that role in a faith-filled and empowered way. It’s not about prominence, a roster, or the size of the group. It’s about the supernatural enabling of the Spirit. Are we filled with faith and the Holy Spirit?
And so today, I simply want to give you three things to help that happen:
Come prayed up.
Take some time to pray for the group or gathering you’re a part of. Pray for everyone who’ll be there, pray that people will encounter the power and presence of Jesus, pray that God will empower you to play your part.
Come with open ears.
Be attentive to the whisper or nudge of the Holy Spirit. Maybe you’ll notice someone that needs encouragement or prayer. Maybe he’ll help you see something that needs doing. Maybe God will nudge you to do something you’ve never done before. The point is to be attentive to his prompting.
Come with expectation.
We know that God is at work in building His church and He has gifted us to participate. We know that He is faithful to give the Spirit to those who ask. When we posture ourselves to say, “Lord, would you help me be a blessing to your church today,” we can be sure he’ll answer.
Imagine how we’ll grow as each one of us plays the part God has created us to play in a spiritually empowered way. Imagine the things God will do amongst us and the stories we’ll share. Let the most important thing not be the cards we’ve been dealt but the Spirit-empowered way in which we play them.
Much love,
Simon
This post is part of the Senior Pastor’s weekly blog. Go to the blog feed >>
The community centre on Strathmore Avenue has been closed this year for major renovations. As they gear up to reopen in the next few months they are fundraising to buy some new furniture. If any of you would like to help there are 2 ways you can do so!
Movie Fundraiser - Mrs Harris Goes to Paris - Sunday 30th October 3pm at Penthouse Brooklyn. Tickets are $25. Contact Fiona Prestidge on 022 5062288 to request tickets.
Vote at Z Broadway - Each time you buy fuel (or snacks!) at Z Broadway, until 24 October, you can put your little token in the box to vote for Strathmore Park Community Centre. The more votes they get, the bigger the proportion of $4,000 they will receive.
It has been such a blessing to have been in the Miramar Uniting building for nearly 2 years now. Our current arrangement is only guaranteed until the end of this year so we have just reached out to find out where things are at. Please pray with us for God’s continued provision for a place to gather on Sundays - whether it be here or somewhere else. We’ll update you with any news!