As we follow what’s going on in Israel and Gaza, it can easily leave us feeling helpless. What can we do except passively watch events unfold? But remember what we discovered last week. We can still pray and with that we can change the world.

Psalm 122 says, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:’ May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels’” (Ps 122:6-7). Implicit in this verse is the idea that Jerusalem is a city of significance that will be a focal point for conflict. This has been seen over the years and as we look towards the end of human history, it is Jerusalem that is the center of God’s end times agenda. To pray about what’s going on in the Middle East is to join with a significant part of the plans and purposes of God.

On Sunday at Mt Vic, we followed Pete Greig’s simple framework for praying in crises. It involves prayer under three headings and it can be a helpful guide whether praying on your own or with others. We can pray for People, Politicians and Priests/Pastors.

People
Pray for the people caught up in the conflict. The side they are on is irrelevant. Each of them is a person made in God’s image. There are still over 200 hostages in Gaza with families worried for their safety. There are hundreds of thousands of people displaced from homes and we can pray for food, shelter, clothing and power. Power shortages in Gaza mean hospitals are only providing emergency care. We need to pray for the significant amount of aid that is needed to get through.

Politicians
Israel has acknowledged they are planning for a ground invasion. This will have a devastating effect on an already horrific situation. We can pray for diplomatic processes in the region. For the intervention and involvement of other world leaders. We can pray for God to change the hearts and minds of those in positions of power such that an invasion might be averted.

Priests/Pastors
Finally, we can pray for Christian leaders and also all Christians who are called to represent God as ‘priests’ in the world. We can pray that they would know God’s presence in their lives and that they might understand how to love their God and love their neighbour during this time.

Above all, while we pray for this area, we can do so knowing that ultimately God is in control. Jesus really will return one day to rule and reign. These events remind us that it could literally be any day. As Peter wrote, “The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you can pray” (1 Pet 4:7).

Me inoi tātou.
Let us pray,
Simon

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This post is part of the Senior Pastor’s weekly blog. Go to the the blog feed >>

The Street Church partners with Christians Against Poverty to help people in Wellington get out of unmanageable debt while at the same time sharing the life-changing message of Jesus with them! Each year, we as a church congregation donate vouchers and treats to make up Christmas hampers that get given to CAP clients around the Wellington region.

To participate, please collect a hamper box from your local service or the church office. Fill it with some goodies and special treats and return by 12th Nov. (You don't need to wrap anything this year.)

Boxes will be coded:

• SM - single male, SF -single female, C - Couple, G - Generic 
  Please fill your box with a $50 Warehouse Voucher, $50 worth of treats and a handwritten card.

• F for families (many families have a few children, so these will be double the value) 
  Please fill your box with a $100 Warehouse Voucher, $100 worth of treats and a handwritten card.

Points to note:

• No alcohol, although other beverages are fine.

• No money.

• Nothing perishable.

IMPORTANT DATES:
Boxes available at Locations from 15th October.
Return dates for boxes from 12th November.
You can return your hamper to your local service or the church office.

If you prefer, you can make a donation towards a hamper, with the reference ‘‘CAPHAMP''

E Street Association
02-1269-0016157-25 

If you would like to get involved with the Christians Against Poverty ministry at The Street, please get in touch with Merrie, our Missions Pastor.

We are so excited to gather “TOGETHER” at Wellington College on Sunday 29th October. Simon and Jenny will be casting a vision for the future, we’ll be commissioning new Location Pastors and Elders, and we’ll be celebrating all that God has been doing in our church. We can’t wait to see you there.

Christmas is coming! Our Christmas service will be on 10th December and we would love you to be involved. We are looking for people to help with baking (we'd like to put on a really festive morning tea!), set up/set down, and musicians to help with the carols - bring your violins, trumpets and harps! Contact hannah.silvester@thestreet.org.nz if you'd like to be part of it. Otherwise, make sure the date is in your diary and start thinking about who you'd like to invite, too.

On Sunday we announced that we have appointed Daryl and Dee Collins as Location Pastors for our Porirua location, with Robert Ives as an Associate Pastor.

This is such an exciting development for us and another testimony of God's faithfulness to His church. We'll be commissioning them this Sunday at Together along with the Silvesters and Lambs.

PLEASE NOTE THE TIME CHANGE FOR TOGETHER - NOW 10:30 AT WELLINGTON COLLEGE

We are one church pursuing one mission and vision, and on 29 Oct we’ll be gathering together in one place for one Sunday service. To worship together, to pray together, to hear stories of God moving - so that together, we can take the next steps on this adventure to reach our city for Jesus.

Registrations are now open, and we need you to register so we can be ready for everyone who comes. This is especially important if you are registering children for Kids Zone.

Date and Time: 29th Oct, 10.30am - 12.30pm

Who: All Locations will meet TOGETHER at Wellington College

Food: After the service we will have a Sausage Sizzle running. Come prepared with a koha for a sausage. All proceeds will contribute to the Kids Zone 'Giving Project'

Register: via the App or CLICK HERE. Kids Zone registration closes 22nd Oct

Other details can be found on the registration page.

Richard and Karina Mulvad would like to invite our East whānau over for lunch on Sunday 22nd October - everyone is welcome!

The address is 37B Puriri Street, Miramar (end of the driveway). People can just head over straight after the service and Richard and Karina will get lunch ready for around 1pm. No need to bring anything at all - and the lunch is for anyone who's keen to get to know each other better and share a meal. If anyone needs a lift, let us know, and we'll try and organise that.

We are very excited to let you know that we have now also appointed Location Pastors for Porirua. Please watch this video to hear Simon and Jenny share the news.

Yesterday, I was in a prayer meeting in Australia with lots of other church-planters, disciple-makers and Pete Greig from 24/7 Prayer. We cried out to God for the meeting that was happening between Benjamin Netanyahu and Joe Biden. I came out so faith-filled that our prayers had shifted something in the Middle East that it made me want to check the news. I truly believe that prayer can change our world. That calling out to a supernatural God can result in real-world answers.

I am usually a very active person. However, I recently broke my ankle, so all I can really do is sit or kneel. Read, write and speak. Then, last night in my hurry out of an Uber, I left my glasses behind, so I can’t even read or write (I am writing this hurriedly at 3am in a hotel bathroom so as not to wake Jenny and before my eyes get too blurry). I just woke in the middle of the night, wondering what I would do until I can get my glasses back, and I felt the Spirit say this… ‘You can still pray.’

This is my journey with God. A painful journey to help me realise that when all I can do is kneel and pray, I can still change the world. When my usual activities and abilities are taken from me, one of the most powerful things I can do is still there. What will it take for you to realise that too?

Much love,
Simon

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This post is part of the Senior Pastor’s weekly blog. Go to the the blog feed >>

PLEASE NOTE there has been a time change and our Together service now starts at 10:30AM Sunday 29th October at Wellington College: 15 Dufferin Street, Mount Victoria. If you’re in our church database you should have received an email about this.

We are one church pursuing one mission and vision, and on 29 Oct we’ll be gathering together in one place for one Sunday service. This is such a big day for us as we get to pray for new Elders, commission new Location Pastors and cast a vision for the future.

Come prepared with a koha for a sausage after the service. The Year 7-8's are cooking the BBQ and all proceeds will contribute to the Kids Zone 'Giving Project'. Due to constraints with the venue, we will have biscuits for morning tea, but NO HOT DRINKS. So come pre-caffeinated :) Lunch will be provided for children in Kids Zone.

This service is free to attend, but please register if you haven’t already:

Are you passionate about church ministry and eager to progress in your discipleship journey? If so, our 2024 Internship Program may be the perfect opportunity for you! We are excited to invite applications, offering you the chance to work closely with one of our dedicated ministry pastors. An internship is a transformative adventure, nurturing your growth in leadership, discipleship, and providing invaluable insights into ministry.

Click on the link below to apply.
Internship Application
Please note that applications close on the 27th of October.

Or if you would like more information or to talk to someone further about internships please email internships@thestreet.org.nz

To celebrate being in our new venue, please bring some kai to share and stay for lunch after the service on Sunday 15th October!

As we think about discipleship at The Street, there are four words we use as an overarching framework. Upwards, Inwards, Outwards and Onwards. The first is “Upwards: We love the Lord.”

Upwards means the goal of our growth as followers of Jesus and our helping one another grow is not simply to grow in our knowledge of God. Our goal is to grow in our love of the Lord. This moves our faith from the head to the heart from which everything else we do flows. Can you see how important it is? Jesus summarised Israel’s Law—all 613 laws—into just two. Love God with all that you are and love others as yourself. Even the goal of the Law was love.

At the moment, I’m reading through the Psalms and this morning I found David coming to the same conclusion.

“Because I love your commands more than gold, more than pure gold, and because I consider all your precepts right, I hate every wrong path.” (Ps 119:127-8)

When David thought about the privilege that the eternal God of creation had spoken authoritatively and accurately to his people, he knew that those written words were more precious than any gold he could amass. He also knew that God had a perspective on life that was more accurate and life giving than the collective wisdom of humanity. He knew that in these commands was the opportunity for a full life and it led him to love God’s commands. What’s more astounding is that his love wasn’t for the gospels but for the Torah - the first five books of our Bible.

What is your motivation for reading Scripture today? Is it obligation? Is it routine? Is it to grow in knowledge? Or is it to grow in your love for the Lord? Routine and knowledge aren’t bad things so long as they lead us to love. Only that will be truly life giving.

As you think about your view of Scripture, what is a step you could take today to help it lead you to love the Lord? One of the things I have changed over time is to not worry about how much I’m reading and focus more on processing and applying what I’m reading. How about you?

Much love,
Simon

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This post is part of the Senior Pastor’s weekly blog. Go to the the blog feed >>

This week marks a milestone in our multi-site journey as we announce the appointment of two couples as Location Pastors.

When we embarked in this direction, we believed in faith that God had been preparing people and would call people to these roles and the leadership teams of Locations. These announcements show his faithfulness to us in providing for where we believe he is leading us. It’s also a milestone because these appointments are for volunteer roles. We have been shaping our structure to provide the necessary support and resources to make volunteer teams sustainable. However, part of their roles will be to foster a culture of team leadership. This means they will need the faithful support of people around them.

From 15th October we will no longer be meeting at 56 Hobart St, but instead will be in the chapel at St Patrick’s College in Kilbirnie. A new venue always takes a bit of getting used to so give yourself some extra time to get there and please let’s have lots of grace with one another while we iron out any wrinkles!

Due to being in a new venue there are some things to be aware of:

• Father Crawford and the leadership team of St Pat’s have been very kind to allow us to use their chapel. The altar (the large table on the stage) is a special part of the chapel and we mustn’t place anything on it. If you have children, please keep them away from the stage area, thank you.

• There is no food or drink allowed in the chapel

• We are no longer in any hurry to get out of the building after a service so we will return to having morning tea after the service instead of before. We will have this in the staff room (there will be signs to point the way!)

• Kids Zone School-Age will be in one of the nearby classrooms, and Kids Zone Pre-School will be in the Staff Room for their programmes. The check in area will be by the chapel for you to check your kids in when you arrive.

  
  There is parking onsite and you can find photos and instructions for how to get there in this information sheet.

It's go time! We are so excited to welcome our first refugee to Wellington in the coming weeks, 

Thank you so much for your generosity over the last week - you have so generously donated almost the full $10,000 we were hoping to raise in order to support these men when they arrive in New Zealand. If you’d still like to contribute by purchasing items for the house you can find a list of items needed here. (please purchase and then drop off to The Life Centre during office hours). If you have any questions please contact Jerram.Watts@thestreet.org.nz

This week we’re heading into our 4th ‘Pillars’ series called Salvation. Pillars first came about because I was concerned that we were grappling with some big issues in out culture without a basic Biblical framework. The purpose of the series is talk through the basics of what Christians have always believed so that we can have meaningful discussion.

However, sometimes talking about this means we do encroach on areas where there is lively debate. That’s where we get to this weekend. At the start of our series on Salvation, we have to talk about the very beginning of the salvation story - predestination. We’ll focus on what we all agree on, but it’s inevitable that we’ll get into territory where people have different positions.

With this in mind, I thought it might be helpful to share something to guard against unnecessary disagreement. It’s the idea that not all doctrines are equal.

When we’re talking about a point of theology, it’s good to think through just how important it is. 

At the top level there’s dogma—core beliefs. There are about seven of them and they include things like the Trinity, the deity and humanity of Jesus, the resurrection, and salvation by grace through faith. To not believe these things is really to claim that you’re not a Christian. These core doctrines can be discussed but they can’t be doubted. I would die on a hill for these.

Next level down there are doctrines. These are important and will often define how our faith is practiced, how we interpret Scripture, or how a church is run. They include things like whether women can be Elders, whether Jesus will rule on earth for a literal 1,000 years, and you guessed it… predestination. Is it about God’s sovereignty or human will?

The point about these issues is not that they don’t matter. It’s just that they’re not worth falling out over. I have good friends who see each of these issues differently to me and we don’t fall out. We understand that there are intelligent people on all sides of the discussion and they don’t actually affect whether we’re included in the family of believers.

The final level is that of opinion. These are issues that we really don’t know about because God hasn’t made it clear. It includes things like the identity of the Two Witnesses in Revelation. We don’t actually know, we can try and work it out but it has no bearing on how we live or how we lead churches.

The problem is that some people try to load as much as possible into the core beliefs category while liberals relegate as much as possible towards opinion. The former make unnecessary divisions while the latter has nowhere firm to stand. Both are poor choices. Instead let’s affirm our unity around what is core and then, as brothers and sisters, have meaningful conversation with one another about everything else.

The truth is that sometimes these things can be a horrible distraction. There’s so much that God has made clear and I want to suggest that our focus should be more about putting what is clear into practice rather than getting too hot under the collar about things that aren’t.

Much love,
Simon

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This post is part of the Senior Pastor’s weekly blog. Go to the the blog feed >>

Sunday 8th is our last Sunday in this venue, and we need to clear it out of all of our things. We need help, please!

We have a van, but we will need people to help clear things out of our cupboards and load them into the van. We also need people who can go and help unload it at Hania Street. We think we should be able to do it in two trips, or maybe less if we have some cars that can help too.

We will also need help on 15th October to move what we need into St Pat’s College, where we will gather until Term 1 next year.

There will be a sign-up sheet at the service on Sunday 1st October - if you can help on either/both dates, please add your name to the sheet. Or you can email me at east@thestreet.org.nz to let me know.

Over the past years, we have been chipping away at a series called "Pillars", where we look at some core doctrines of the church. We've looked at the Bible itself in our Bestseller series, as well as the doctrine of the church. Last year, we did Origins, and now we begin our next instalment looking at Salvation.

Check out this short promo video from our Teaching Director, Jerram, on what to expect in this next series.

Today in this series of blogs, we turn to 1 Peter — where the context is suffering for doing good. Peter reminds us that we will be overlooked, misunderstood and mistreated for our belief in Jesus and the life we live as a result. This just can’t be avoided.

In fact, it’s more concerning to find yourself living an easy, comfortable life because it provokes the question, “am I too assimilated into this culture?” It’s the feeling we don’t quite fit in that reminds us that here is not home, we’re destined for somewhere greater!

In 1 Peter 3:15-16, Peter teaches that the way to live in the midst of this tension is to live with Christ as Lord. Such a life, Peter says, provokes a question about the hope that we have. Questions we should be ready to answer.

So what does it mean to live with Christ as Lord?

One thing it doesn’t mean is being an overly dogmatic person who loves to trumpet truth. That’s not the gentleness and respect Peter was after (1 Pet 3:15). Nor does it mean someone who frowns at everything they don’t agree with. This is a life that shuts down all questions, conversation and friendship.

Living with Christ as Lord means letting your life do the talking. That’s the life that provokes a question.

For a start, if this is the case, you’re living with a completely different sexual ethic. Faithful marriage, celibacy, dating honourably and not sleeping around. A guy who doesn’t stare at a woman in a low-cut top. A woman who doesn’t complain about her husband. Standing out in this area is not even that hard.

From there, just look through the Sermon on the Mount. We don’t just treat our friends well but we love our enemies (Matt 5:43-47). How would it look when we don’t talk behind another’s back? What about continuing to be kind when we’re insulted or honouring your boss rather than undermining them?

What about our anxious age? We’re worried about the cost of living, increasingly anxious about the climate, and bereft of contentment because we just can’t live up to social media’s view of what our lives should be like. Has there ever been a greater need for the church to show what it’s like to be generous with those in need and to live with an abiding trust in Him rather than the harassment of worry?

Let’s live with Christ as Lord and with an unshakeable hope that He will soon return to bring about a world made right. Let’s live lives that show Jesus’ way of life so that some — maybe many — might be invited into it too.

Much love,
Simon

Questions to ponder:

• Can you think of a time where someone has noticed or commented on how you live your life differently as a Christian?

• How are you doing in the areas mentioned: sexual ethic, loving others (including “enemies”), contentment and generosity? Does your faith in Christ show in the way you live?

• Can you think of any other areas where it would be easy to stand out as a Christian?

• What is one step you could take this week to be different (in a good way!) from the world around you?

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This post is part of the Senior Pastor’s weekly blog. Go to the the blog feed >>