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July 2008

 

 

July 08 Newsletter

 

Leadership Article

From Brent Pickworth Senior Pastor Motueka Church of Christ and Member of the National Leadership Team

Hello to you all from Motueka where we find ourselves waking to frosty mornings followed by sunny crisp days. My wife Tracey and I have now been in Motueka for seven years firstly coming as youth leaders and now in the role of senior pastors. There have been constant changes in our lives, both personal and in our church role.

We all live now in times of constant and rapid change and it can give you headaches trying to keep up!
God challenged me recently on one thing that has never and will never change, and that is His love for those not yet in relationship with him.

His challenge to me was as usual very timely as we were looking ahead to our church vision for the next 18 months.

Reading Luke 15 I was reminded of Gods deep concern for the lost, firstly leaving the ninety nine sheep to find the one lost, secondly the women who lost the silver coin and the thoroughness of her search to find it (she lights a lamp, sweeps the house and searches carefully until she finds it) and thirdly the parable of the lost son, and I quote (“but while he was still a long way off his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son). In all three stories there was a celebration when what was lost was found. It occurred to me amongst this, the attitude of the son that remained with the father verse 25-32. He became angry and refused to celebrate the return of the lost brother. Becoming totally focused on himself, the son questioned his father over his “compassion for the lost”.

The church in Motueka has had much growth in the last four years and it would be easy now to relax and enjoy where God has taken us. My concern is that as Christian Church members we do not fall into the trap of the oldest son and become busy about maintaining what we have, inward focused and losing the heart of God towards those not in relationship with him.

What sets us as churches apart from clubs and other organizations in this country is the message of salvation that we carry and we must never loose focus of the incredible love God has for those who do not know him. So my encouragement to our church in Motueka is that we continue to look into the community compassionately welcoming those who are lost and seeking.

Brent Pickworth Senior Leader and member of the National Leadership Team

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July Report from the National Leadership Team

Greetings from the National Leadership Team.

Our July meeting was held in Nelson Brent Pickworth set the mood with a very thought provoking devotion from Luke 11 - "Don't get so busy we don't spend time with the Lost". It is a constant challenge for all of us to keep before us.

Debby was able to report that the trial, on line statistics set up, has been successfully completed and it will be available for the rest of the churches shortly there is an informative elective on this at Move 08

We finalised the brochures and registrations for Move 08, well done to the creative team who designed them, a great effort, and a great result. Thanks.

Brent & Viv Liebezeit will travel to Nashville for World Convention as our representative we look forward to their report on their return.

Our next meeting will be combined with the CEPTB in Nelson the day after Move 08 we value your prayers for these meetings.

Blessings
The National Leadership Team

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MOVE ’08 (Convention)

The registration forms are hot off the press. We also want to introduce two of our own great speakers which will be sharing with us at Move ’08.

Aaron Ironside is the Senior Leader of Harvest Church and will be taking a session on Thursday afternoon. He will be sharing and teaching from his own personal journey of planting a church in Te Atatu. This will be an incredible session and we will be praying for those who have a calling to plant churches.

Also Brent Pickworth from Motueka will be taking a session on “Growing a Church from 70-300”. Brent & his wife Tracy are now the Senior Leaders at Motueka and have transitioned the church through this stage of growth.

There will be electives on Friday (of which we need your choices – see your registration form) and Move ‘08 will finish on Friday night with a dinner for Senior Leaders and the option for others (non-senior leaders) to attend Annesbrook’s Youth service – Epic Youth.

Costs of Move ‘08
Senior Leader/Spouse [Tuesday Lunchtime 12 noon – Wednesday 7pm + Dinner Friday Night] $125.00
Standard Convention [Wednesday 7pm onwards] $55.00

Accommodation options and details are included in the registration form and include billeting or staying at a nearby motel - Saxton Lodge $100 per room per night.

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Church Development

George & Pauline’s Itinerary


This month George and Pauline are visiting Kahurangi and Richmond churches, will be in Australia visiting NSW Churches of Christ, attending Hillsong Conference and also enjoying a holiday from Thursday 3rd July.

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What’s Happening Around New Zealand - Freedom Community Centre

Thank you for you feedback from our last newsletter. It is great hearing news from around our churches and below is an excerpt from an email from our Invercargill Church who have changed their name to Freedom Community Centre.

“…We have been sending out monthly newsletters throughout the community and beyond, advertising what we as a Church are doing. We have a monthly movie night on a Friday evening, a monthly walk with transport to a given destination, a fortnightly Praise and Worship evening; and our "Fun with Music" weekly, as well as our usual Home Groups.

We were told to expect the first responses with 4 - 6 months of doing our mailings, but now within 3 months we have 2 new people in the Church and interest in a new Home Group. We have found a wonderful 'sound' man, which has made an amazing difference to our services as everything has been upgraded, and crèche set up as planned.

We received a grant we applied for and by the end of next school holidays(3-4 weeks) will have a new kitchen installed along with a transformed foyer and much better heating (very important in the south!!).

Our Sunday morning services are showing increased attendance as people are eager to see what will happen next…”

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Regional Meetings

Senior Leaders Regional Meeting – Lower North Island

Our second regional meeting was another brilliant time with Brent. We were hosted this time by Jocelyn Stephens, Lifepoint Feilding. I certainly felt we built on the momentum from our last meeting.

During the first part of the day Brent lead us in a devotional from Joshua with the challenge to grow our confidence in God. He spoke of the “bigger-ness” of God. We all know our God is a big God but He will always be bigger than we know.

Last time we had focused on personal leadership issues and this was built on as we looked at being a leader of leaders during the second part of the day. We were able to deal with lots of practical, nitty-gritty issues related to leading other leaders.

There is a desire and a determination among us all to be more than we currently are and to better lead our churches into being more than they currently are.

The sense of growing camaraderie among us was a great experience. My fellow co-workers are awesome people and I really appreciate connecting with them.We are continuing to look at ways to work together, support and strengthen each other.

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